The first presentation of a shrine's architecture in the Bible
comes not as a description but as a set of instructions.
Strikingly, it follows immediately upon the Bible's first vision
of a piece of actual heavenly architecture, in the form of God's
throne (Exodus 24:10). "And they saw the God of Israel, and
beneath his feet was something like a brickwork of lapis lazuli,
(kemaˤaśê libnat hassappîr) like the very heavens in purity
(ṭwhr)." Especially interesting here is the comparison to brick.
While it was still a common building material in Iron Age Syria-
Palestine, brick is a low-prestige material in the Tanakh. Not
one brick is used in the construction of the Temple, the
Tabernacle, or Solomon's palace, and brick construction, as
opposed to stone, appears to be the subject of a barb in the
Tower of Babel story (Gen 11:3). The immediately following
account of the Tabernacle begins, like the description of God's
throne, as a vision (Exodus 25:9): "Exactly as I show you--the
pattern (tabnît) of the Tabernacl