Located on the western side of the Sacred Avenue, directly opposite the Wordless Stele, the Monument in Praise of the Sage Ruler was built to eulogize the achievements of Emperor Gaozong. The text was composed by Wu Zetian and handwritten by her son Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian. It stands 8.65 meters to the north of the western watchtower.

The square stele consists of seven sections including the top, main body and base, symbolizing the seven celestial elements: the Sun, the Moon, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth. This implies that Emperor Gaozong’s civil and military accomplishments illuminated the whole nation, so it is also called the Seven-Section Stele.

It is 7.53 meters tall and 1.86 meters wide on each side, weighing around 89.6 tons. The top is designed in the hip-and-gable roof style, with stone giant statues carved at the four corners of the eaves. Bracket sets are carved beneath the eaves, connecting to the five-section main body, which is mounted on the base. All parts are joined with traditional mortise and tenon joints. A stele pavilion once stood here, with a square foundation measuring 18.80 meters from north to south and 18.85 meters from east to west, but the pavilion no longer exists today.

This monument pioneered the tradition of erecting merit steles in front of imperial mausoleums. Except for the first and fourth sections of the main body which are blank, inscriptions are carved on the front, east and west sides of the other three sections.

The main text is written in parallel prose, arranged in 46 lines with roughly 120 characters per line, totaling about 6,000 regular-script characters. Gold dust was inlaid into every stroke, making the stele glitter all over the mausoleum. Over centuries, the gold dust has gradually fallen off and most characters have eroded. Only more than 1,500 characters remaining on the first, second and fifth sections can still be vaguely recognized.