(9.) He thinks that "Solomon's Stables" are "a reconstruction from the floor upwards, and it is probable from the remains of an arch described by Captain Wilson at the south-east angle, that the original vaulting was of a much more solid and massive character." If this is so, no argument can rest upon the manifest inability of the vaults as they now are to support the Royal Cloister. Most of these results and opinions, it will be found, weigh very heavily in favour of the traditional view. At the same time an opinion may always be wrong. II. Let us pass on to the evidence given by history. The only historical evidence we can rely on as to the actual site of the Temple, on which subject little information can be found in the Bible itself, is to be obtained from Josephus. We refer to three passages : (1.) Antiq. viii., 3, § 9. " When Solomon had filled up great valleys with earth, and had elevated the ground four hundred cubits, he made it to be on a level with the top of the mountain on which the Temple was built, and by this mtaus the outmost temple, which was exposed to the air, was even with the Temple itself" (2.) Bell, Jud., v., ch. 5, § 1. " Now this temple was built upon a strong hill. At first the plain at the top was hardly sufficient for the holy house and the altar, for the ground about it was very uneven, and like a precipice ; but when King Solomon, who was the person that built the Temple, had built a wall to it on its east side, there was then added one cloister, founded on a bank cast up for it, and in the other parts Solomon, therefore, following the practice common to all nations, built his temple in such a place, that it should occupy a commanding position, and should be an object of mark for the surrounding country. This is exactly confirmatory of the preceding. It proves that Josephus, and therefore the Jews, believed the altar, wherever it really was, to be the top of the hill. See, however, above, Capt. Warren's results, No. 1. the holy house stood naked ; but in after ages,' the people added new banks, and the hill became a larger plain. They then broke down the wall on the north side,and took in as much as sufficed afterwards for the compass of the entire Temple."