“... The prosperous centuries of the New Kingdom (ca. 1550-1070 BC) provide most of the records of this type of embellishment in Egypt, and some examples will make the royal activities clear. Tuthmosis III (ca. 1490-1436 BC) built a shrine for Amun at Deir el-Bahri “plated with gold and silver,” with a floor similarly adorned. Amenophis III, in the next century, decorated several structures in this way. Of one temple in honour of Amun at Thebes, he claimed it was “plated with gold throughout, its floor is adorned with silver, all its portals with electrum,” while the temple at Soleb had the same treatment, except that “all its portals are of gold.” [...] “Overlaying the floor [of the Temple] with gold is unlikely” according to one writer, “absurd” according to another. Martin Noth was willing to accept the gold overlay of the walls, but not the floor. Among the Egyptian texts cited were mentioned a floor “wrought with gold and silver,” another “adorned with silver,” a third “its floor is of silver.” These records differ in mostly having silver for the floors, not gold, and it is objected that gold would be impracticable because of its softness. That objection may have some force, although it may be slightly lessened by observing that the priests probably entered Solomon’s Temple barefoot. [...] None of these records or examples can prove there was a gold-plated temple in Jerusalem at any time, but their testimony is sufficient to confute all the objections to the biblical descriptions as exaggeration or fantasy. The enhancement of the Temple ascribed to Solomon is entirely compatible with ancient practice. ...”