When the Turkish soldiers from Khilji’s army, and later the Mughal army, saw the ruins of Ellora, they were convinced that these were supernatural creations. The caves were not created by humans, but created by jinns.

Jinns are supernatural creatures referred to in the Quran. They live in a parallel universe. Like humans, they have the capacity to choose either the divine or the diabolical path. They can be both good and bad. Jinns are typically associated with paranormal phenomena and with ruins in Islamic lore. Wherever the Muslim world spread and came across ruins which existed long before their time and about which very little information was available, the Muslims concluded the ruins were built by jinns. For example, the ruins at Petra and the pyramids of Egypt, were all imagined as creations of the Jinn. It is said that when the nomadic people reached Jerusalem and saw the palace of King Solomon of Israel, they were convinced that he had jinns under control who could create such magnificent structures.