The building which the Mouassine Museum occupies today is located right next to the southeastern corner of the Mouassine Mosque, along Derb el Hammam street (named after the bathhouse of the mosque).[1][2] It consists of a residential home which includes a douiria (or dwiriya), a small house or upper floor apartment which was used to receive guests, often integrated to a larger riad or mansion.[1][10][4]:379[11] It was built by an aristocratic Sharifian family in the 1560s, at the time when this neighbourhood was being created by the Saadians.[1] Some of the painted sun motifs in the house, however, appear to date from the reign of the later Alaouite sultan Moulay Isma'il in the late 17th or early 18th century.[2][10]