“Upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of sky-blue wool, and cover it with a covering of the hide of a taḥash, and they shall place its staves” (Numbers 4:11). “Upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of sky-blue wool” – the golden altar, because it stood in the Sanctuary, they would cover it first with a cloth of sky-blue wool. Then they covered it with a covering of taḥash hide and placed its staves with which to carry it, as it is stated: “And cover it with a covering…” But they would not place its utensils with it, but rather, they would place them separately upon a cloth of sky-blue wool, cover them with a covering of taḥash hide, and place them on a pole in order to carry them upon it, as it is stated: “[They shall take] all the service utensils with which they serve [in the Sanctuary, and they shall place them in a cloth of sky-blue wool, and cover them with a covering of the hide of a taḥash, and they shall place them on the pole]” (Numbers 4:12).
What were its utensils? They were a spoon and a coal pan, a spoon for the incense of the spices and the coal pan in which to place coals. He would place the coal pan with the coals upon the altar and pour the incense that was on the spoon into it upon the coals. That was the golden altar.