מלכים א, פרק ו׳, פסוק ל׳

The final touch of the Temple's interior design involved a luxurious layer of gold covering the entire floor. The primary approach among commentators is that this gold plating extended throughout both main sections of the building: the inner chamber, known as the Holy of Holies, and the outer sanctuary. Throughout the space, the gold was laid over a solid foundation of cypress wood [מצודת דוד].

The timing of this installation was carefully planned. The gold was added only at the very end of the construction process, after the large cherubim were fully built and positioned inside the Holy of Holies. This delay was entirely practical. Had the floor been plated earlier, the workers moving around to assemble the cherubim would have trampled and damaged the delicate gold surface [אברבנאל, מלבי״ם].

Even though the floors of both chambers appeared identical from the surface, their underlying structures differed. In the outer sanctuary, an additional layer of cedar wood was placed beneath the gold. However, the floor of the Holy of Holies lacked this extra wooden layer. This structural choice served two purposes. First, it ensured the exact dimensions of the Holy of Holies remained perfectly accurate, maintaining a precise height of twenty cubits. Second, it created a physical distinction between the different levels of holiness in the two rooms [רלב״ג].