³ When the queen of Sheba realized how wise Solomon was, and when she saw the palace he had built,

Solomon Builds the Temple

3 So Solomon began to build the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David, his father. The Temple was built on the threshing floor of Araunah^[a] the Jebusite, the site that David had selected. ² The construction began in midspring,^[b] during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign.

³ These are the dimensions Solomon used for the foundation of the Temple of God (using the old standard of measurement).^[c] It was 90 feet long and 30 feet wide.^{[d] 4} The entry room at the front of the Temple was 30 feet^[e] wide, running across the entire width of the Temple, and 30 feet^[f] high. He overlaid the inside with pure gold.

³ Solomon had answers for all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her.

Solomon Builds the Temple

6 It was in midspring, in the month of Ziv,^[a] during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, that he began to construct the Temple of the Lord. This was 480 years after the people of Israel were rescued from their slavery in the land of Egypt.

² The Temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high.^{[b] 3} The entry room at the front of the Temple was 30 feet^[c] wide, running across the entire width of the Temple. It projected outward 15 feet^[d] from the front of the Temple. ⁴ Solomon also made narrow recessed windows throughout the Temple.

⁵ He built a complex of rooms against the outer walls of the Temple, all the way around the sides and rear of the building. ⁶ The complex was three stories high, the bottom floor being 7 1⁄2 feet wide, the second floor 9 feet wide, and the top floor 10 1⁄2 feet wide.^[e] The rooms were connected to the walls of the Temple by beams resting on ledges built out from the wall. So the beams were not inserted into the walls themselves.

⁷ The stones used in the construction of the Temple were finished at the quarry, so there was no sound of hammer, ax, or any other iron tool at the building site.

²³ When he arrived and saw this evidence of God’s blessing, he was filled with joy, and he encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord.