Sunan Ibn Majah Book 25, Hadith 74
“I asked the Messenger of Allah
(ﷺ)
about the Hijr, and he said: ‘It is part of the House.’ I said:
‘What kept them from incorporating it into it?’ He said: ‘They
ran out
of funds.’ I said: ‘Why is its door so high up that it
can only be
reached with a ladder?’* He said: ‘That is what your
people did so
that they could let in whoever they wanted and keep out
whoever they
wanted. Were it not that your people have so recently
left disbelief
behind, and I am afraid that it would bother them, I
would have
changed it, incorporating what they left out and I would
put its door
at ground level.”