The seven gates at the time of Suleiman were:
'Gates' in biblical Israel weren't just a doorway into the city. They were where prophets cried out and kings judged, and people met, like in the ancient city of Dan.
Again, Acts 3:2 talks about a church gate and very importantly, there is a gate to your life. If the gate to a man's life is shut, he will experience nothing significant, but if the gate is opened it causes men to release blessings unto him and even kings will be compelled to favour him.
In the Book of Revelations (Revelation 21:12), there is reference to the twelve gates, each of which represents a different passageway to heaven. Additionally, in folklore and mythology, it is commonly believed that there exists twelve gates, or entrances, to the underworld.
The gate is an entryway into an unknown place, or a place of great significance; it is a threshold, and may connect the living and the dead. They are normally guarded by symbolic animals: the LION, DRAGON, BULL, and DOG are often depicted in conjunction with the gate.
Tower of Babel story
…which in Babylonian was called Bab-ilu (“Gate of God”), Hebrew form Babel, or Bavel. The similarity in pronunciation of Babel and balal (“to confuse”) led to the play on words in Genesis 11:9: “Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth.”
Biblical scholars refer to God's gates as when we come into the presence of God. In other words, whenever we worship God, we enter His presence.
The name for the Pearly Gates Playground is derived from Christian tradition as the entranceway through which souls travel to reach their god after death. The gates of heaven are said to be guarded by Saint Peter, one of the founders of the Christian Church.
“As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it” (Luke 19:41). He wept, but he continued on his way into Jerusalem, uniting his destiny with that of the city and its Temple. Coming down from the Mount of Olives, Jesus must have entered the city through its eastern gate, the Golden Gate.
According to the New Testament, the Beautiful Gate was one of the gates belonging to the Temple in Jerusalem prior to its destruction by the Romans in AD 70.
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14, NASB).
A gate is an exit or entry point. There are two types of gates, the physical and the spiritual gates; every physical gate has a corresponding spiritual gate! Before you conquer a physical gate, it's imperative that you conquer a spiritual gate. Upon every gate, there are strong men!
So then, to possess the gates of our enemies requires dedicated, importunate and energetic prayer since we are up against the unseen but real and wicked “rulers of this age.” This is no easy struggle!
12 Gates of the New Jerusalem
It gives us insight to how many gates there are leading into Heaven — 12. Each gate representing one of the tribes of Israel. If we are planning on entering Heaven, we must walk through one of the gates of the tribes of Israel.
The gate was named in Arabic “Bab A- Nabi Daud”, the Gate of King David, since it leads to Mount Zion, where King David was buried according to the traditions of the three religions. The Christian tradition views Mount Zion as the site where significant events such as Jesus' Last Supper took place.
[12] And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: [13] On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
1. (1-2) The shut east gate. Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces toward the east, but it was shut. And the LORD said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the LORD God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.
Gate of Mercy: This gate, in the eastern Temple-Mount wall, may be the best-known of them all. Also called the Golden Gate or the Eastern Gate, it has been blocked for centuries, and is said to be awaiting a miraculous opening when the Messiah comes and the dead are resurrected.
Jesus' promise to give him the “keys of the kingdom” led to the popular perception of Peter as the gatekeeper of heaven. The Roman Catholic church celebrates five feast days in honour of Peter, and in each the name of Paul is associated.
Hadraniel (or Hadrianiel among other variant spellings), whose name means "majesty [or greatness] of God", is an angel in Jewish Angelology assigned as gatekeeper at the second gate in heaven.
The cave leads to the gate of the garden, guarded by a cherub with a flaming sword. If a soul is unworthy of entering, the sword annihilates it. Within the garden is a pillar of fire and smoke that extends to the higher Gan Eden, which the soul must climb in order to reach the higher Gan Eden.
From other passages, we know God welcomes all to enter His gates. All may come and find salvation in Him! In Psalm 100:1 it says, “all the earth.” It is a call for worship to every person, not just the Jewish people. The term “gates” is a Hebrew word “shah'ar” which means gate, especially to a city or town.
In Psalm 100:4, we are told to “enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.” When we come to God, we have so many reasons to thank Him. Jesus is the greatest of all these reasons. Bringing thankfulness and praise to God is a way to worship Him.
Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.