Commentaire sur Ézéchiel 42:20

On four sides he measured it Three thousand cubits by three thousand [cubits], for the rod was six cubits long. This is what the Kalir asserted, “The Beloved will stretch out a line of three thousand cubits limited by three thousand cubits.” This is thirty-six times the original dimensions - for the Temple Mount was [originally] five hundred cubits by five hundred cubits; arrange 3,000 times 3,000 as strips of 500 cubits laid vertically and horizontally [forming a solid square], and you will have thirty-six squares of 500 cubits by 500 cubits. [3,000 x 3,000 = 9,000,000. 500 x 500 = 250,000. 9, 000,000 divided by 250,000 = 36.] Therefore, the poet states: “And thirty-six as it was multiplied.”

On four sides he measured it: its wall all around [i.e., the wall] of the Temple Mount.

around...five hundred in length and in width. This was the wall that encompassed the entire mountain.