Q. What is the reason why the number eighty-one is held in such esteem among Princes of Masons? A. Because that number explains the triple alliance which the Eternal operates by the triple triangle, which was seen at the time Solomon consecrated the temple to God; and also that Hiram Abiff was eighty-one years of age when he was murdered.
Q. Was anything else perceived at the consecration? A. A perfume which not only filled the temple, but all Jerusalem.
Q. Who destroyed the temple? A. Nebuchadnezzar.
Q. How many years after it was built? A. Four hundred and seventy years, six months, and ten days, after its foundation.
Q. Who built the second temple? A. Zerubbabel, by the grant and aid of Cyrus, King of Persia. It was finished in the reign of Darius, when he was known to be a Prince of Jerusalem. Cyrus not only gave Zerubbabel and the captive Masons their liberty, but ordered all the treasures of the old temple to be restored to them, that they might embellish the second temple, which he had ordered Zerubbabel to build.
Q. What signifies the jewel of the Right Worshipful Grand Master of all Lodges being a triangle? A. He wears it in remembrance of the presents given by monarchs and the protectors of the order, in recompense for their zeal, fervor, and constancy.
Q. What way have you traveled to become a Right Worshipful Grand Master of all Lodges, and Grand Patriarch? A. By the four elements.
Q. Why by the four elements? A. To put us in mind of this world, and the troubles in which we live; to cleanse ourselves from all impurities, and thereby render ourselves worthy of perfect virtue.
Q. Where was the Lodge of Grand Masters first held? A. In the sacred vault, east of the temple.
Q. Where is that lodge held at present? A. All over the world, agreeably to the orders of Solomon, when he told us to travel and to spread over the universe, to teach Masonry to those whom we should find worthy of it, but especially to those who should receive us kindly, and who were virtuous men.