The Holy of Holies was the tabernacle in a tent form made to shelter the Ark of the Covenant for worship when Israel was travelling to the promised land. The oldest documents describe it as a simple thing which stood outside the camp. The end result was a rectangular structural about 145 feet long, 72 feet wide, 7 feet tall, and enclosed by curtains. Within was another compartment divided in two by a veil. Its innermost chamber was the sacred Holy of Holies, which contained nothing but the Ark of the Covenant, a special box containing the Tablets of Law. In front of the veil hiding the Holy of Holies was an incense altar, a bread table on its right and a seven-branched candelabra on its left, all made of precious materials. In the courtyard outside was a washing bowl and an altar for burnt offerings. The materials for its building were all available at the place and time. It contained the Ark, the table for the shewbread and the candelabrum. The whole service and approach to it is laid down (Exodus Chapter). Dimensions were 45 ft. by 15 ft, and the entrance was on the E. on 3 sides of the walls were boards which could be dismantled, and the other side was curtained. The walls were 15 ft. high. Pillars held the curtains and there were more pillars inside, supporting curtains to screen off the Holy of Holies, which was 15 ft. square. The calling was a tent of linen or muslin, and cloth draped the walls too. Drapes of goats' hair hung down outside, and the whole stood in a fenced enclosure 150 ft. by 75 ft. The laver and the altar stood in the enclosure but outside the Tabernacle, while the Ark was in the Holy of Holies and just outside it the altar of incense with the table of shewbread on its right and the Golden Candlestick on the left. The Levites were responsible for dismantling and re-erecting it. After the conquest Joshua brought it out from its temporary site at Gilgal to Shiloh. The erection was probably made more permanent. When the Philistine captured the Ark (Psalm) in Saul day, the Tabernacle was at Nob. In David's and Solomon's day it was at Gibeon. When the new temple was built to double the scale of the Tabernacle, the Old Testaments was dismantled stored in the Temple.
The glorious presence of God has been called the Shekinah. It was the thought to be present in the Holy of Holies, and on occasion was noted in the form of a cloud descending on such places as the Tabernacle and Temple. The tabernacle was sufficiently portable that it could be moved and set up as the Israelites wandered. Much of it could be carried on poles, and various groups were assigned responsibility for the different places. When it was erected, the Israelites camped around it in a specific order according to tribe.
It must have been quite an operation each time the Israelites moved and set up camp. When they eventually reached the Promised Land, the Tabernacle was set up for a long stretch of time at Gilgal and the Ark would be removed and carried into battle. When David became king, it was time to make things permanent.
The Bible tells us that David purchased a high spot on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem that was used as a threshing floor by a man named Araunah. This was also the traditional site where Abraham took his son Isaac to be scarified, as God explained to him, he was “a man of war”, and had shed blood. He did, however, pass the plans on the his successor, Solomon.
The Holy of Holies is the most sacred Tabernacle followed by the Jerusalem temple. Only the high priest was permitted to enter and only once yearly on the day of atonement.