1 Kings 6

It happened in the four hundred and eightieth year after Bani-Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Sulayman's reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of Allah. ²The house which king Sulayman built for Allah, its length was sixty cubits, and its width twenty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. ³The porch before the temple of the house was twenty cubits in length, the same as the width of the house; and ten cubits was its width before the house. ⁴For the house he made windows of fixed lattice-work. ⁵Against the wall of the house he built rooms all around, against the walls of the house all around, both of the temple and of the inner sanctuary; and he made side-chambers all around. ⁶The lowest floor was five cubits wide, the middle floor was six cubits wide, and the third floor was seven cubits wide; for on the outside he made offsets in the wall of the house all around, that the beams should not have hold in the walls of the house. ⁷The house, when it was being built, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was being built. ⁸The door for the middle side-chambers was in the right side of the house: and they went up by winding stairs into the middle story, and out of the middle floor to the third floor. ⁹So he built the house, and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar. ¹⁰The rooms he built all along the house were each five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar. ¹¹The word of Allah came to Sulayman, saying, ¹²Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, and execute my ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I establish my word with you, which I spoke to Dawud your father. ¹³I will dwell among Bani-Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel. ¹⁴So Sulayman built the house, and finished it. ¹⁵He built the inside walls of the house with boards of cedar: from the floor of the house to the ceiling, he covered the walls on the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the house with boards of fir. ¹⁶He built a twenty-cubit room in the rear part of the house using boards of cedar from the floor to the ceiling: he built it inside as the inner sanctuary, as the most holy place. ¹⁷The house, that is, the temple before the inner sanctuary, was forty cubits long. ¹⁸There was cedar on the house within, carved with buds and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen. ¹⁹He prepared an inner sanctuary in the midst of the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of Allah. ²⁰Within the inner sanctuary was a space of twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in width, and twenty cubits in height; and he overlaid it with pure gold: and he covered the altar with cedar. ²¹So Sulayman overlaid the house inside with pure gold: and he drew chains of gold across before the inner sanctuary; and he overlaid it with gold. ²²The whole house he overlaid with gold, until the entire house was finished: also the whole altar that belonged to the inner sanctuary he overlaid with gold. ²³In the inner sanctuary he made two karubin of olive-wood, each ten cubits high. ²⁴Five cubits was the one wing of the karubi, and five cubits the other wing of the karubi: from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other were ten cubits. ²⁵The other karubi was ten cubits: both the karubin were of one measure and one form. ²⁶The height of the one karubi was ten cubits, and so was the other karubi. ²⁷He set the karubin within the inner house; and the wings of the karubin were stretched forth, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other karubi touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house. ²⁸He overlaid the karubin with gold. ²⁹He carved all the walls of the house around with carved figures of karubin and palm trees and open flowers, inside and outside. ³⁰The floor of the house he overlaid with gold, inside and outside. ³¹For the entrance of the inner sanctuary he made doors of olive-wood: the lintel and door-posts were a fifth part of the wall. ³²So he made two doors of olive-wood; and he carved on them carvings of karubin and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread the gold on the karubin, and on the palm trees. ³³In the same way he made for the entrance of the temple door-posts of olive-wood, out of a fourth part of the wall; ³⁴and two doors of fir-wood: the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. ³⁵He carved thereon karubin and palm trees and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold fitted on the engraved work. ³⁶He built the inner court with three courses of hewn stone, and a course of cedar beams. ³⁷In the fourth year the foundation of the house of Allah was laid, in the month Ziv. ³⁸In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all the parts of it, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.