The Qur'anic basis is a single verse: glory be to the one who took his servant by night from the sacred place of prostration to the farthest place of prostration, whose surroundings we have blessed, in order to show him some of our signs. It names no mount, no companion and no ascent, and a second passage, in the chapter of the Star, describes a vision near the Lote Tree of the Boundary without connecting the two explicitly. Everything else comes from hadith and from the early biographical tradition, where the narrative is told in detail and with variations between transmitters.
In the developed account the roof of the house is opened, the chest is opened and washed, and a white mount called Buraq, smaller than a mule and larger than a donkey, whose stride reaches as far as its sight, is brought and mounted with Jibril alongside. They travel to Jerusalem, where the mount is tethered, and the prophets who came before are assembled and Muhammad leads them in prayer, which is the moment the tradition reads as the succession of one prophetic line by another. Then comes the ascent through the heavens, at each of which a gate is opened after Jibril is challenged and identifies his companion, and at each of which a prophet is met: Adam at the first, Isa and Yahya at the second, Yusuf at the third, Idris at the fourth, Harun at the fifth, Musa at the sixth and Ibrahim at the seventh, seated with his back to the much-frequented house.