⁵ Next he measured the wall of the temple building. It was six cubits thick, and the width of each side room was four cubits. The side rooms^[a] ran all around the temple. ⁶ The side rooms were stacked on top of one another, in three stories, with thirty rooms in each story. The floors of the side rooms rested on ledges attached to the wall of the temple all the way around, so that the supports for the rooms would not cut into the temple wall itself. ⁷ The side rooms all around the temple became wider as one went up from story to story, because their supporting ledges in the wall of the temple ascended like steps. Therefore, the width of the interior of the attached structure increased as one went up from the lowest story to the highest by way of the middle story.^[b]

The Platform and Courtyard

⁸ I saw a raised platform all around the temple that served as a foundation for the side rooms. The terrace built on this foundation, measured by a full rod, was six long cubits tall.^{[c] 9} The thickness of the outer wall of the side rooms was five cubits. The open area^[d] between the side rooms attached to the temple ¹⁰ and the other rooms on the other side of the inner courtyard was twenty cubits wide^[e] all around the temple. ¹¹ There were entrances into the side rooms from the open area, one entrance on the north side, one on the south. The width of the terrace^[f] bordering the open area was five cubits all around.^[g]