The mosque was designed by Arthur Benison Hubback, a government architect who is notably credited for the design of the Ipoh railway station and the Kuala Lumpur railway station.
The construction of the mosque was not without difficulties. Work was interrupted several times, once when two elephants belonging to the Sultan and Raja Chulan were fighting and ran over and damaged the imported Italian marble titles.
It was built in 1926 for Sultan Iskandar Shah by the Malay carpenter Enci Sepian from Bukit Mertajam, with the assistance of his sons Zainal Abidin and Ismail. The palace was used as the Sultan's official residence between 1931 and 1933.