e wings of
these cherubim spread themselves forth twenty cubits: and they stood
on their feet, and their faces were toward the house.

And he made the veil of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen,
and wrought cherubim thereon. Also he made before the house two
pillars of thirty and five cubits high, and the capital that was on
the top of each of them was five cubits. And he made chains in the
oracle, and put them on the tops of the pillars; and he made an
hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains. And he set up the
pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the
left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and the
name of that on the left Boaz.

Moreover he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof,
and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height
thereof. Also he made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim,
round in compass, and the height thereof was five cubits; and a line
of thirty cubits compassed it round about.

{463}{464}

[Illustration]
THE MOSQUE OF OMAR AND THE ANCIENT TEMPLE AREA

In the background is the Mosque of El Akoa and beyond are the
Judaean hills, to the south and southeast

Used by special permission of the Detroit Photograph Company.

The Mohammedan Mosque of Omar now stands upon the old temple area.
It is a handsome octagonal building, standing on a platform near the
center of the area, from which it is elevated by several steps. It
is said to have been built in 636 by the Caliph Omar. In 1099, when
the Crusaders captured Jerusalem, ten thousand Arabs were massacred
in this enclosure. In 1187 the Moslems, under Saladin, again took
the city, and the mosque has been one of their most sacred places
ever since.
[End illustration]

{465}

And under it were the images of oxen, which did compass it round
about, for ten cubits, compassing the sea round about. The oxen were
in two rows, cast when it was cast. It stood upon twelve oxen, three
looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three
looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the
sea was set upon them above, and all their hinder parts were inward.
And it was an handbreadth thick; and the brim thereof was wrought like
the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held
three thousand baths.

He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on
th