It took Solomon thirteen years , however , to complete the construction of his palace . He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long , fifty wide and thirty high , with four rows of cedar columns supporting trimmed cedar beams . It was roofed with cedar above the beams that rested on the columns -- forty - five beams , fifteen to a row . Its windows were placed high in sets of three , facing each other . All the doorways had rectangular frames ; they were in the front part in sets of three , facing each other . He made a colonnade fifty cubits long and thirty wide . In front of it was a portico , and in front of that were pillars and an overhanging roof . He built the throne hall , the Hall of Justice , where he was to judge , and he covered it with cedar from floor to ceiling . And the palace in which he was to live , set farther back , was similar in design . Solomon also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh ' s daughter , whom he had married . All these structures , from the outside to the great courtyard and from foundation to eaves , were made of blocks of high - grade stone cut to size and trimmed with a saw on their inner and outer faces . The foundations were laid with large stones of good quality , some measuring ten cubits and some eight . Above were high - grade stones , cut to size , and cedar beams . The great courtyard was surrounded by a wall of three courses of dressed stone and one course of trimmed cedar beams , as was the inner courtyard of the temple of the LORD with its portico . King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought Huram , whose mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was a man of Tyre and a craftsman in bronze . Huram was highly skilled and experienced in all kinds of bronze work . He came to King Solomon and did all the work assigned to him . He cast two bronze pillars , each eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits around , by line . He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on the tops of the pillars ; each capital was five cubits high . A network of interwoven chains festooned the capitals on top of the pillars , seven for each capital . He made pomegranates in two rows encircling each network to decorate the capitals on top of the pillars . He did the same for each capital . The capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were in the shape of lilies , four cubits high . On the capitals of both pillars , above the bowl - shaped part next to the network , were the two hundred pomegranates in rows all around . He erected the pillars at the portico of the temple . The pillar to the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz . The capitals on top were in the shape of lilies . And so the work on the pillars was completed . He made the Sea of cast metal , circular in shape , measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high . It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it . Below the rim , gourds encircled it -- ten to a cubit . The gourds were cast in two rows in one piece with the Sea . The Sea stood on twelve bulls , three facing north , three facing west , three facing south and three facing east . The Sea rested on top of them , and their hindquarters were toward the center . It was a handbreadth in thickness , and its rim was like the rim of a cup , like a lily blossom . It held two thousand baths . He also made ten movable stands of bronze ; each was four cubits long , four wide and three high . This is how the stands were made : They had side panels attached to uprights . On the panels between the uprights were lions , bulls and cherubim -- and on the uprights as well . Above and below the lions and bulls were wreaths of hammered work . Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles , and each had a basin resting on four supports , cast with wreaths on each side . On the inside of the stand there was an opening that had a circular frame one cubit deep . This opening was round , and with its basework it measured a cubit and a half . Around its opening there was engraving . The panels of the stands were square , not round . The four wheels were under the panels , and the axles of the wheels were attached to the stand . The diameter of each wheel was a cubit and a half . The wheels were made like chariot wheels ; the axles , rims , spokes and hubs were all of cast metal . Each stand had four handles , one on each corner , projecting from the stand . At the top of the stand there was a circular band half a cubit deep . The supports and panels were attached to the top of the stand . He engraved cherubim , lions and palm trees on the surfaces of the supports and on the panels , in every available space , with wreaths all around . This is the way he made the ten stands . They were all cast in the same molds and were identical in size and shape . He then made ten bronze basins , each holding forty baths and measuring four cubits across , one basin to go on each of the ten stands . He placed five of the stands on the south side of the temple and five on the north . He placed the Sea on the south side , at the southeast corner of the temple . He also made the basins and shovels and sprinkling bowls . So Huram finished all the work he had undertaken for King Solomon in the temple of the LORD : the two pillars ; the two bowl - shaped capitals on top of the pillars ; the two sets of network decorating the two bowl - shaped capitals on top of the pillars ; the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of network ( two rows of pomegranates for each network , decorating the bowl - shaped capitals on top of the pillarsthe ten stands with their ten basins ; the Sea and the twelve bulls under it ; the pots , shovels and sprinkling bowls . All these objects that Huram made for King Solomon for the temple of the LORD were of burnished bronze . The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan . Solomon left all these things unweighed , because there were so many ; the weight of the bronze was not determined . Solomon also made all the furnishings that were in the LORD ' s temple : the golden altar ; the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence ; the lampstands of pure gold ( five on the right and five on the left , in front of the inner sanctuary the gold floral work and lamps and tongs ; the pure gold basins , wick trimmers , sprinkling bowls , dishes and censers ; and the gold sockets for the doors of the innermost room , the Most Holy Place , and also for the doors of the main hall of the temple . When all the work King Solomon had done for the temple of the LORD was finished , he brought in the things his father David had dedicated -- the silver and gold and the furnishings -- and he placed them in the treasuries of the LORD ' s temple .