From this description, the idea we form of the House of the Forest of Lebanon' is that of a large hall, open in the centre to the sky, the floor of which was surrounded with four rows of pillars, afford ing a promenade, above which were three tiers of galleries open to the interior, divided each into fifteen compartments like the boxes in a theatre, but with doors communicating with each other. As the height of the entire building was thirty cubits, we may divide this so as to allot eight feet to the supporting pillars, eighteen to the galleries, and four to the beams and flooring of the galleries. The building, thus conceived, answers to the description of it by Josephus, as KopuOiws krery arrAcivos, by which he means, not that it was in the Corinthian style of architecture (Keil), nor that it was ' a hall with a clerestory' (Smith's Dirt. of the Bible, ii. 659) ; but that it was built after the Corinthian fashion—that of a hall, surrounded by a row of pillars with heavy architraves, on which rested beams running to the wall, and supporting a floor, which again supported shorter pillars, be tween which were windows, the whole being hy plethral (Vitruv. vi. 3. i). Vitruvius says this kind of building resembled the basilica. If for one gallery we substitute three, the above description answers very closely to that of Solomon's House of the Forest of Lebanon. It is possible, however, the whole may have been roofed over and lighted by a clerestory.
If now we regard this building (B, fig. 417) as placed lengthwise in the middle of a court (A), it is easy to understand the arrangement of the portico of pillars (D), the length of which was the same as the breadth of the building (ver. 6). These did not run along the side of it, hut were behind it, forming a colonnade fifty cubits long by thirty wide, conducting to the residence of the king. This terminated in a porch, or entrance-hall, which had pillars and an :V, i. e., a threshold or Perron (A. V. ' thick beam ; ' Targ. Nrmlpo, segofatha, limes). By this was entered the throne-room or hall of judgment (E), which was wainscotted with cedar from floor to ceiling ni-Tri [this is the reading followed by the Vulg. and Syr. instead of which is a manifest error] Then came the king's residence in another court (F) behind the throne-room ; and of this the resi dence of the queen, which may or may not have been the harem, formed a (probably the back) part. The space G is added conjecturally, for the court containing the offices of the palace, and per haps ' the king's prison.' All these buildings were externally of hewn stone, and the whole was sur rounded by a solid wall enclosing a court.
In the above attempt to restore the palace of Solomon from the Bible account of it, the writer has closely followed Otto Thenius in the Exeget. Hdbuclz. zunz A. T. Nowhere else has he been able to find anything satisfactory on the subject. The account of Josephus is evidently a sketch from fancy on a basis of traditional information more or less correct. In works on Hebrew archxology, the subject is usually omitted or passed over very cursorily; and the same course is followed even by writers who have made ancient architecture their special subject, as Stieglitz and Hirt. Of those who have attempted to throw light on the subject, some have understood Hebrew but not architecture, and some have understood architec ture but not Hebrew. Thenius is the first who has brought both qualifications to bear upon the elucidation of the Bible statement. His scheme, however, is liable to some objections. To the arrangement of the pillars, for instance (fig. 415), it may be objected—I. That, according to the pro portions he has given, it is impossible that there should be space for a promenade between these pillars ; and if a wider space were allowed the central area would be too much narrowed ; and 2, One does not see what purpose could be served by such a crowded range of pillars ; it is neither orna mental nor useful. The writer ventures to suggest that the four courses of pillars were not on the same area, but one above the other, corresponding to the four floors of the building. This agrees with the statement in the text that ' the height thereof was thirty cubits upon four rows of cedar pillars' (ver. 2), the whole height was divided among the four rows or courses of pillars ; and an arrange ment is produced very like what one sees in Oriental halls in the present day. It may be doubted also if for a building intended evidently to contain a large number of people, entrance to the galleries would be effected by a stair in the wall ; it is more probable that a wide stair (a' fig. 418) gave access to them. In accordance with these sugges tions the plan of this great hall may be given, as in figs. 418 and 419; fig. 420 gives a sectional view of it. In figs. 419 and 420 there is introduced a passage running round the interior of the gallery, and giving access to the rooms ; this is perhaps unnecessary, as the chambers communicated with each other ; but it is a possible arrangement, and is therefore given.—W. L. A.