In the early years of Islam, when there was no architectural precedent for mosque architecture in Madinah, the Prophet, according to tradition, insisted on ‘the booth of Moses’ as an architectural reference for his mosque’s design, while refusing to (re)build it after the style of Syrian edifices. Since then, this mosque itself has become an architectural precedent or prototype for many subsequent mosques around the world, including recently constructed ones in the West whose architects would assume a similar context of almost no, or rather poor, local architectural precedents for mosque architecture, which, they in turn, try to create. However, unlike the position of the prophet and his vast tradition on devotional essentials that are argued to have prompted the mosque's architectural evolution, the collections of references of these architects usually pertain to their personal interpretation and design culture which substantially influence the way mosques are produced. References, according to Goldschmidt, represent “known instances of design that can serve as arguments to be used in design reasoning”. Consequently, these references encompass sources of knowledge, both architectural and non-architectural, that architects deem relevant to their design task. More often than not, these references are examined in fragments, without exerting efforts to understand the frames through which these references are used and presented. Moreover, these references are mostly overlooked by studies on mosque architecture in the West which give more emphasis to the ideological discourse-either colonial or diasporic. These discourses are typically associated with visions of mosques’ patrons or clients rather than architects. Therefore, this research explores these collections of references, as expressed by their architects through interviews conducted with the architects of three recently completed mosques in the West: these are Cambridge Central Mosque in the UK, Ljubljana Mosque in Slovenia, and Punchbowl Mosque in Australia. Examining the three mosque projects, along with these interviews have revealed various shifting forms of influence and positions through which each project’s architect(s), either explicitly or implicitly, has tried to not only rationalize their design references but also argue towards their universality.