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Jakarta. Could the internationally famous ninth-century Borobudur Temple in Central Java, which features hundreds of Buddha statues, in fact be Islamic?

An obscure group called the Islam and Ancient History Study Institution thinks so, and is reportedly set to petition the Constitutional Court to declare that the famous temple belongs to Islam. Other academics, however, dismiss the claim.

Kompasiana.com, a news portal, reported that researchers led by Fahmi Basya, a lecturer of Islamic mathematics from Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta, claimed they had solid proof that the temple was built by the Prophet Solomon’s “genie soldiers.”

Solomon, who according to the Hebrew Bible was a king of Israel, is known as the Prophet Sulayman in the Koran.

According to the article, the researchers had connected Borobudur with the Kraton Ratu Boko (Queen Boko’s Palace) near the Hindu temple Prambanan, close to the city of Yogyakarta, claiming that Boko was actually another name for Sulayman’s wife, Queen Balqis (Queen of Sheba).

The researchers, according to the news portal, said supporting evidence included new Islamic mathematical measurements created by Fahmi, which were known only to him.

Another method used by the researchers to connect Borobudur to Islam was by the association of names. The origins of the name Sleman, a town and district in Yogyakarta, they said, came from Sulayman, while “Java” came from the word “Jews.”

Fahmi, who could not be reached for comment, intends to put forward his arguments as the basis for his request that the Constitutional Court declare the World Heritage Site the rightful property of Muslims and revise history books and literature on the subject.

But JJ Rijal, a historian, told the Jakarta Globe that Fahmi’s claims could be categorized as “ideological history.”

He also said Sulayman was not the only prophet connected to Java. “When Islam was first introduced to Java, a tradition was born,” Rijal said.

“All prophets were linked to Java. Royal families’ genealogical trees would show that their ancestors were the Prophet Adam, even the Prophet Muhammad and now, Sulayman.”