Zitat Kommentar zu Pirkei Avot 5:5

אך של שיש מניחי את האברים – after the dissection, they arrange them (i.e., the parts of the offering – the limbs) on the table until the Kohanim would bring them up, but they did not make them (i.e., the tables) of silver or gold for there is no poverty in the place of wealth, since the gold and the silver cause them (i.e., the parts of the offerings) to get hot and smell badly, whereas the marble cools them off and preserves them so that they do not smell badly, but they would not rely on a miracle that the holy meat never smelled badly (see Tractate Avot, Chapter 5, Mishnah 5, - "ולא הסריח\התליע בשר הקדש מעולם" ).

The hollow part inside the altar would be filled with earth every time the Israelites made camp in order to enable them to offer sacrifices upon it. In this way the instruction of Exodus 20,21: “you shall construct an earthen altar for Me” was fulfilled.
A great miracle occurred on a regular basis on this altar. Although the fire on the altar burned around the clock, neither the wooden boards nor the copper overlay burned or melted. This was also one of the miracles mentioned in Avot 5,5 that even when it used to rain the fire on the altar where the wood was stacked would not be extinguished by the rain. It (the altar during the period when the Temples were standing) was standing in the area called עזרה, an enclosure without a roof, corresponding to the courtyard mentioned in connection with the Tabernacle.
In Tanchuma Terumah 11 we find the following comment:. Moses was afraid that the fire might burn the wood of the altar. G’d reassured him, saying: “why are you afraid Moses? Who ordered fire to burn? You should learn from your own experience. When you came up to the mountain and you entered the ערפל, and you walked between rows of fire you did not get burned. Moreover, you entered My domain, and I Myself Am consuming fire (Deut. 4,24) and you remained unscathed. Similarly, the altar’s boards and covering will not be burned either.” If someone were to say that the copper overlay over the boards of the altar was so thick that no miracle was required to protect it form melting, Rabbi Nechemyah said that it was no thicker than the coin called a דינר. Rabbi Pinchas, son of Bar Chama, said that the altar constructed by Moses (Betzalel) was more beloved by G’d than that constructed for Solomon’s Temple even though Solomon’s altar was much larger, seeing that we read in Kings I 3,4 that Solomon’s altar could accommodate 1.000 burnt offerings (presumably at one time).

והנה איל BEHOLD, A RAM — It was predestined for that purpose from the six days of Creation (Avot 5:5; Midrash Tanchuma, Vayera 23).