Anonymous

“ Into the royal city entrance found!
How do the reckless feet of strangers tread
With step irreverent on the hallowed ground!
Lo! when the spoilers stormed the sanctuary,
They fell on priests, the guards of sacred rite,
Watchmen who kept their charge, and fearlessly
Stood by, unflinching 'mid the deadly fight:
Until their blood was shed, profuse as when
Of yore the Nile was turned to bloody flow;
Within the curtain burst unholy men,
Yea, even where the High Priest feared to go,
They stript of gold thy walls' majestic heights,
And the fair windows of thy narrowed lights. ”

“ The tradition was that while ordinary windows were constructed by cavities in the walls cut at an angle widening inwardly to admit the rays of light into the building, the windows of the Temple were cut in the opposite way to suggest that the Temple was the true source of light. ”