Herod's words surprised everyone in an extraordinary way. The grandeur of the idea made it seem unfeasible. And even if it were not, they feared that once the Temple was demolished, they would not be able to rebuild it entirely, and so they found the undertaking very dangerous. But he reassured them, promising not to touch the old building until he had prepared everything necessary for the construction of the new one, and deeds followed words. He employed a thousand carts to bring in the stones, gathered all the material, chose ten thousand laborers from the best, and appointed over them a thousand priests, dressed at his expense, intelligent and practical in the work of mason and carpenter.

When everything was ready, he had the old foundations torn down, to be rebuilt, and on them the Temple was built, measuring one hundred cubits in length and one hundred and twenty in height. But later the foundations gave way, and the height was reduced to one hundred cubits. Our ancestors wanted, during the reign of Nero, to raise the Temple, in order to recover these twenty cubits of lowering. This work was done with hard and very white stones that measured twenty-five cubits long by eight high and twelve wide.

The front of this superb building looked like that of a royal palace. The two ends of each front were lower than the center, and this center was so high that those standing in front of the Temple or heading there could see it, even if they were very far away, even several stadia away. The architecture of the porticos was almost similar to the rest. There were tapestries of various colors adorned with purple flowers, with columns between them, on the cornices, from which hung vine branches made of gold, with the clusters and leaves so well worked that in these works, so rich, art owed nothing to nature.

Herod had galleries made around the Temple, so wide and so high that they matched the magnificence of everything else, surpassing in beauty all that had been seen before, so that it seemed that no one else but this prince had worked to adorn the Temple. Two of these galleries were supported by strong, thick walls, and nothing had ever been seen so beautiful as this work.

There was a stony hill which was very rough and steep, but which sloped downward, more gently, toward the city on the east side, and Solomon was the first, by God's command, to surround its apex with walls. Herod surrounded with another wall the entire foot of this hill, below which, on the south side, there is a deep valley. This wall, built of large stones bound with lead, went all the way to the edge below the mound and surrounded it completely. It was square in shape, and so high and strong that you could not look at it without wonder. The stones, of extraordinary size, faced outward and were bound together with iron from the inside, so that they could withstand all the ravages of time. After this wall was erected, as high as the apex of the mound, the entire void within was filled. Thus a platform was formed, the perimeter of which was four stadiums, for each of the fronts was one stadium long, and there was a large portico placed in the middle of the two angles.

Another wall was made in this square, also of stone, to surround the apex of the mound, whose side, opposite to the east, had a double portico, which was in front of the entrance of the Temple, which was built in the middle, and several of our kings adorned and greatly enriched this entrance. The entire perimeter of the Temple was full of spoils, obtained over our enemies, and Herod consecrated them anew, after adding to them the trophies won from the Arabs.

Flavius Josephus, History of the Hebrews.