ically signified fire, by the fine flax the earth, by the blue
the air, and by the purple the sea; two of them having their colors the
foundation of this resemblance; but the fine flax and the purple have
their own origin for that foundation, the earth producing the one, and
the sea the other. This curtain had also embroidered upon it all that
was mystical in the heavens, excepting that of the [twelve] signs,
representing living creatures.

5. When any persons entered into the temple, its floor received them.
This part of the temple therefore was in height sixty cubits, and its
length the same; whereas its breadth was but twenty cubits: but still
that sixty cubits in length was divided again, and the first part of it
was cut off at forty cubits, and had in it three things that were very
wonderful and famous among all mankind, the candlestick, the table [of
shew-bread], and the altar of incense. Now the seven lamps signified the
seven planets; for so many there were springing out of the candlestick.
Now the twelve loaves that were upon the table signified the circle of
the zodiac and the year; but the altar of incense, by its thirteen kinds
of sweet-smelling spices with which the sea replenished it, signified
that God is the possessor of all things that are both in the
uninhabitable and habitable parts of the earth, and that they are all to
be dedicated to his use. But the inmost part of the temple of all was of
twenty cubits. This was also separated from the outer part by a veil. In
this there was nothing at all. It was inaccessible and inviolable, and
not to be seen by any; and was called the Holy of Holies. Now, about the
sides of the lower part of the temple, there were little houses, with
passages out of one into another; there were a great many of them, and
they were of three stories high; there were also entrances on each side
into them from the gate of the temple. But the superior part of the
temple had no such little houses any further, because the temple was
there narrower, and forty cubits higher, and of a smaller body than the
lower parts of it. Thus we collect that the whole height, including the
sixty cubits from the floor, amounted to a hundred cubits.

6. Now the outward face of the temple in its front wanted nothing that
was likely to surprise either men's minds or their eyes; for it was
covered all over with plates of gold of great weight, and, at the first
rising of the sun, reflected back a very fiery