13 Preface يَعمَلونَ لَهُ ما يَشاءُ مِن مَحاريبَ وَتَماثيلَ وَجِفانٍ كَالجَوابِ وَقُدورٍ راسِياتٍ ۚ اعمَلوا آلَ داوودَ شُكرًا ۚ وَقَليلٌ مِن عِبادِيَ الشَّكورُYusuf AliThey worked for him as he desired, (making) Arches,1 images, basons as large as reservoirs, and (cooking) cauldrons fixed (in their places): “Work ye,2 sons of David, with thanks! but few of My servants are grateful!”Mihrab (Plural Maharib), translated “arch”, may be applied to any fine, elevated, spacious architectural structure. As the reference here is to the Temple of Solomon, the word “arches” is I think most appropriate. “Arches” would be structure Ornaments in the Temple. Images would be like the images of oxen and Cherubim mentioned in 2 Chronicles, 4:3 and 3:14; the Basins 2 Chronicles 4:22 were perhaps huge dishes round which many men could sit together and eat, according to ancient Eastern custom, while the cooking Cauldrons or Pots (2 Chronicles, 4:16), were fixed in one place, being so large in capacity that they could not be moved about. (R).The building of the Temple was a great event in Israelite history. The motto here given is “Work!”: for only that would justify the maintenance of the Kingdom of David, which reached its zenith under Solomon. Without work, both literally, and figuratively for “righteous deeds”, all that glory and power would be out of place, and it fell away in a few generations, with the decline of the moral spirit which was at its back.