Midrasch zu Schemuel I 6:8

GEMARA: Of which Temple is it spoken? Shall we assume of the first Temple? then there was only a partition [before the ark, and not a curtain]. And if we assume it refers to the second Temple then, again, there was no ark in it. For we were taught: When the Holy Ark was removed, there disappeared with it, the bottle of manna; the bottle of anointing oil; Aaron's staff with its decorations of almonds and buds, and the box the Philistines had sent as a gift to the God of Israel together with the golden vessels; as it is said (I Sam. 6, 8) And take the ark of the Lord, and place it into the wagon; and the articles of gold, which ye return him as a trespass-offering, ye must put in a casket alongside of it, etc. And who removed them? Joshia, king of Juda. What was his reason for doing it? He found a passage (Deut. 28, 36) The Lord will drive thee and thy king whom thou wilt set over thee: so he went and removed it, as it is said (II Chron. 35, 3) And he said unto the Levites that instructed all Israel, who were holy men unto the Lord: Set the holy ark in the house which Solomon, the son of David, the King of Israel, built; ye have not to carry it any more upon your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God, and His people Israel. And R. Eliezer said: "We infer by rule of analogy of the three similar words Shama (there), Doroth (generations) and Mishmereth (preservations) [to prove that the ark was hidden then." Hence there was no ark in the second Temple]. Surely it [the Mishnah] refers to the second Temple. What is meant by "until he reached the Holy Ark," i.e., the place where the Ark stood during the first Temple. But it is stated that he placed the censor between the two staves. Read it. where there should have been the two staves.'