Talmud do Diwrej ha-jamim II 4:6

Could they make spouts one on top of the other²⁰²Here starts the discussion of Mishnah 10. It is understood that Ben Qatina made 12 spouts level around the basin. Why was he restricted to 12?? Rebbi Jonah said, for the maximum day of the daily sacrifice²⁰³By Mishnah 2:5, this is the maximum number of Cohanim needed for any morning daily sacrifice. Babli 37a.. The top because of a vessel reduced in its majority. But is the lower not in the category of volume inside a vessel²⁰⁴How could there be a biblical requirement that the Cohanim sanctify themselves with water drawn from a basin? It is one of the general principles of the rules of purity that water only purifies if either it is flowing (in any amount) or is collected in a cistern (of at least 40 seah); water drawn in a container and poured into a cistern renders the latter disqualified. One has to prove that the basin does not qualify as a container. According to the Babli, the original two spouts were one on top of the other (37a).
As was noted in Eruvin (Chapter 1, Notes 199–206) the Solomon’s basin was a cylinder put on top of a rectangular solid. The upper part, being totally open to the bottom, is not a container. But the bottom seems to be a container.? Rebbi Joshua ben Levi said, a water canal was drawing from Etam²⁰⁵En Etam, “the pools of Salomon”, source of the water for the Temple., and the feet to the South were reduced in the size of pomegranates²⁰⁶The basin was not a container since the water in it was not at rest. It was filled from the water canal and the water flowed out of holes in the hooves of the three Southern bronze cattle on which the basin was resting (IK. 7:25). A hole in the size of a pomegranate makes any vessel pure since it cannot be a container even for solid food (Mishnah Kelim 17:1). (In Q, there is no mention of “Southern”.). Rebbi Simeon ben Carsana in the name of Rebbi Aḥa: The Sea was a place of immersion of the Cohanim, and the Sea for the Cohanim to wash in it²⁰⁷This entire paragraph is copied in Q.. But was it not a vessel? A water canal was drawing from Etam, and the feet to the South were reduced in the size of pomegranates.

²⁰⁷This entire paragraph is copied in Q. It is written²⁰⁸2Chr. 4:6. The topic is to find roots for the uncommon words אֲגַרְטְלֵ֨י, מַֽחֲלָפִי֭ם.: And these are their numbers: gold basins30, Rebbi Samuel bar Nahman said, places where the blood of the lamb was collected. Silver basins 1’000, Rebbi Simeon ben Laqish said, places where the blood of the bull was collected. Knives 29, Rebbi Simon said, these are the knives, as we have stated there²⁰⁹Mishnah Middot 4:7., “it was called the place of knives since there they hid the knives.”