Solomon's Temple

David said, “My son Solomon is still young and inexperienced. And since the Temple to be built for the Lord must be a magnificent structure, famous and glorious throughout the world, I will begin making preparations for it now.” So David collected vast amounts of building materials before his death (1 Chronicles 22:5-6).
Then David gave Solomon the plans for the Temple and its surroundings including the rooms, the courtyards, furniture and fittings and the golden cherubims. He said, “Every part of this plan was written under the direction of the Lord (1 Chronicles 28).
Solomon began to build the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah on the site of the threshing floor that David had purchased from Araunah the Jebusite, the site that David had purchased (2 Chronicles 3:1 cf 2 Samuel 24:18-25).
The foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid in the month of Ziv [second month] of the fourth year of Solomon’s reign. The entire building was completed in every detail by the month of Bul [eighth month] of the eleventh year of his reign. So Solomon took about seven and a half years to build the Temple (1 Kings 6:37-38).
Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple remains relevant for us today. Here is a part of his prayer: “If there is famine … whatever plague or whatever sickness … whatever prayer … made by any man … each knowing his own affliction and his own pain, and spreading his hands toward this house, then (1) hear … (2) forgive, and (3) render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know … that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways … (2 Chronicles 6:28-31, NASB).