Regarding the temple that Herod built on the same site, Josephus wrote: It was “covered on all sides with massive plates of gold, the sun was no sooner up than it radiated so fiery a flash that persons straining to look at it were compelled to avert their eyes, as from the solar rays.
Деведесет години подоцна, Зоровавел, управителот на Јуда, подигнал на ова место една прилично скромна градба.