The mosque of Al-Salih Tala’i was one of the last Fatimid constructions and one of those surviving to this day. It was built in 1160 by Al-Salih Tala’i who was a capable and powerful vizier whose period was a stable one. This mosque was originally intended to be a resting place for the head of Al-Hussein. However, the head of Al-Hussein was kept in a shrine in a Fatimid palace where the Al-Hussein mosque was built and his head stayed there.

The mosque was built on an elevated ground, which made it the first hanging mosque in Cairo, and the space between the street level and the mosque was allocated to shops and stores which contributed to the revenue of the mosque. The mosque has a portico with five arches on its front entrance, a feature which was uncommon for mosques at the time. On the interior, the mosque has a courtyard, which is surrounded by an arcade of keel-shaped arches, with the qibla side extending deeper to form a prayer hall. The arches are beautifully decorated with verses from the Quran written in kufa font, and the window grilles are carved in stucco. In 1303, an earthquake damaged the mosque, which made the Mamluks rebuild some elements of the mosque and add their mark to it, which included adding bronze facings to the main doors, adding wooden mashrabiya screens to the front portico of the mosque and adding a beautiful minbar which still survives today and in a good condition.