Now that the functions of the city of Shallah were reduced to spiritual and/or superstitious, more archaeological vestiges saw their purposes transformed to fit better with this new vision of the ruins. This is the case for the ablution room of the funerary mosque.

The room has 5 cells, a court, and a central fountain. Sometime during the French protectorate, it was flooded with water and was never evacuated. A specific fish was brought to the basin for some unknown reason and populated it. Through the years, they were granted, by popular tradition, the supernatural power of healing infertility. Women who wish to conceive come to the basin to feed the eels boiled egg whites hoping they would grant her wishes. Occasionally, you still find egg shells around the basin today showing that people still practice these superstitious beliefs.

Today, another tradition dominates the basin.  The visitors of the site throw a coin in the basin-like  ablution room and make a wish, like they do in European fountains.

In the archaeological record, excavation of modern level corresponding to the 16th century have delivered pits replete of the debris of ceramics used for cooking couscous (couscoussiers). This attests the practice of the Moussem, or the ceremony of the collective and social visit to saints and perhaps even the sacrifice of foods. Of this tradition survived in the 20th century the practice of the Nzaha (literally promenade or picnic) by the families of Rabat and Salé . It’s the ritual of gathering with family or friends on Friday afternoon after the noon prayer in the garden, accompanied by Malhoun (Moroccan – Andalusian music) singers and storytellers. Today, only a few families continue to celebrate this tradition, and it’s encouraging that on Friday all admissions are for free for Moroccans and resident foreigners for all archaeological sites and museums.