Its description is largely based on narratives in the Hebrew Bible, in which it was commissioned by biblical king Solomon before being destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 587 BCE.

The Hebrew Bible, specifically within the Book of Kings, includes a detailed narrative about the construction's ordering by Solomon, the penultimate ruler of the United Kingdom of Israel.

[3] The First Temple's destruction and the subsequent Babylonian captivity were both events that were seen as a fulfillment of biblical prophecies and thus affected Judaic religious beliefs, precipitating the Israelites' transition from either polytheism or monolatrism (as seen in Yahwism) to firm Jewish monotheism.

During the 1980s, skeptical approaches to the biblical text as well as the archaeological record led some scholars to doubt whether there was any Temple in Jerusalem constructed as early as the 10th century BCE.

[16] According to the Bible, Solomon's Temple was built on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, where an angel of God had appeared to David (2 Chronicles 3:1).

[23] After the Temple and palace (taking an additional 13 years) is completed, Solomon hands over twenty cities in the northwestern Galilee near Tyre as a repayment to Hiram.

It states that the trees sent as rafts were sent to the city of Joppa on the Mediterranean coast,[21] and in return for the lumber supplied, Solomon, in addition to the wheat and oil, sent wine to Hiram.

[27] 1 Kings 8:1–9 and 2 Chronicles 5:2–10 record that in the seventh month of the year, at the feast of Tabernacles,[28] the priests and the Levites brought the Ark of the Covenant from the City of David.

Later, when Ahaz of Judah was threatened by defeat at the hands of Rezin of Aram-Damascus and Pekah of Israel, he turned to king Tiglath-Pileser IV for help.

[46][47] The Jewish historian Josephus says; "the temple was burnt four hundred and seventy years, six months, and ten days after it was built".

[15] The description of Solomon's Temple given in I Kings and II Chronicles is remarkably detailed, but attempts to reconstruct it have met many difficulties.

One of the excavators, Israeli archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel, suggested that the style and the decoration of these cultic objects are very similar to the biblical description of some features of Solomon's Temple.

[55][56] The walls of the sanctuary were lined with cedar, on which were carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers that were overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:29–30).

The main hekhal contained a number of sacred ritual objects including the seven-branched candlestick, a golden Altar of Incense, and the table of the showbread.

There was a two-leaved door between it and the Holy Place overlaid with gold; also, a veil of tekhelet (blue), purple, and crimson and fine linen.

The molten sea was made of brass or bronze that which Solomon had taken from the captured cities of Hadadezer ben Rehob, king of Zobah (1 Chronicles 18:8).

Also outside the temple were 10 lavers, each of which held "forty baths" (1 Kings 7:38), resting on portable holders made of bronze, provided with wheels, and ornamented with figures of lions, cherubim, and palm-trees.

[74] Biblical scholar Thomas Römer speculates that the Ark may have contained statues of Yahweh and Asherah, and that it could have remained in Kiriath Jearim for much longer, possibly until shortly before the Babylonian conquest.

[75] During the Deuteronomic reform of King Josiah, the cult objects of the sun and Asherah were taken out of the temple and the practice of sacred prostitution, and the worship of Baal and the hosts of heaven were stopped.

[76] A korban was a kosher animal sacrifice, such as a bull, sheep, goat, or dove that underwent shechita (Jewish ritual slaughter).

Because of the religious and political sensitivities involved, no archaeological excavations and only limited surface surveys of the Temple Mount have been conducted since Charles Warren's expedition of 1867–70.

[9] Artifacts previously believed to prove the existence of Solomon's Temple—an ivory pomegranate and a ninth century BCE stone tablet—are now highly contested as to their authenticity.

[86] On the other hand, William G. Dever argues that the biblical description of the Temple itself shows profound similarities with other temples of the time (Phoenician, Assyrian and Philistine), suggesting that this cult structure was actually built by Solomon (whom he sees as an actual king of Israel) in the 10th century BCE, although the biblical description is undoubtedly excessive.

Its authenticity was called into question by a report by the Israel Antiquities Authority, which said that the surface patina contained microfossils of foraminifera.

[102] The Quran refers to Solomon's Temple in the seventh verse of Surah Al-Isrāʾ (The Night Journey, aka Bani Israil):[110] If you [the Children of Israel] act rightly, it is for your own good, but if you do wrong, it is to your own loss.

[111] According to the narrative in Islam, the Temple in Jerusalem was originally a mosque commissioned by Solomon and built by jinn on the commandment of Allah, with the purpose of serving as the qibla of the Israelites.

In the early years of Islam, Prophet Muhammad and his followers faced Jerusalem for prayers until the city of Mecca (specifically its Kaaba) superseded the former as the new qibla.

[114] Kabbalah views the design of the Temple of Solomon as representative of the metaphysical world and the descending light of the creator through Sefirot of the Tree of Life.

El Escorial, a historical residence of the King of Spain built in the 16th century was constructed from a plan based on the descriptions of Solomon's temple.

[116] The same architectural layout of the temple was adopted in synagogues leading to the hekhal being applied in Sephardi usage to the Ashkenazi Torah ark, the equivalent of the nave.