יחזקאל, פרק מ״א, פסוק ז׳

The architecture of the Temple incorporates a sophisticated design to allow easy access to its upper levels while smartly utilizing the thickness of its walls. The system of surrounding side chambers and the pathways leading to them were planned in a tiered, circular fashion to accommodate the great height of the building.

These side chambers were built in three distinct stories, stacked one on top of the other. The primary approach among commentators is that as the floors rose, the interior space of the rooms expanded. Consequently, the middle floor was wider than the bottom floor, and the top floor was wider than the middle. This expansion occurred because the thickness of the Temple wall gradually decreased at higher elevations. The resulting ledges provided a resting place for the ceiling beams, which in turn added interior space to the upper rooms [רש"י, רד"ק, מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Offering a different perspective, [אברבנאל] suggests that these side chambers were not actual rooms built into stone ledges. Instead, they were interlocking cedar wood panels that coated the walls, gripping one another without penetrating the stone itself.

Reaching these upper chambers required a winding ascent. The primary approach among commentators is that this involved a spiral staircase. It functioned like a hollow stone pillar fitted with stairs, where a person climbing would circle the pillar, continually changing direction along the sides of the Temple until reaching the roofs and upper rooms [רש"י, רד"ק, אברבנאל, מצודת ציון]. Because the structure was tiered and surrounded by these stairs, the uppermost floor ended up being the widest of all [רד"ק]. In contrast, [מלבי"ם] explains that in the future Temple, which will be exceptionally tall, the ascent will not rely on internal spiral stairs as it did in the First Temple. Rather, the exterior wall of the building will protrude outward to form an external ramp and staircase surrounding the entire structure. Due to the building's immense height, this outward expansion of the wall was necessary to create a wide, continuous climbing path around the outside of the Temple.

The route of this ascent meant that a person climbing from the bottom floor to the top floor passed directly through the middle floor [מצודת ציון, רש"י]. According to the perspective that the ascent was an external ramp, the entry process was slightly different. Once a person finished climbing the ramp from the lowest level to the highest, they entered the interior chamber structure through a doorway set specifically in the middle room of the top row of chambers [מלבי"ם].