Tamid 1:3-4

Tamid 1:3

The Temple official took the key and opened the small door that led from the fire chamber to the Temple courtyard. The kohanim followed him carrying two torches. They split into two groups, one traveling along the portico to the east and the other traveling along the portico to the west. As they went, they checked (that the Temple vessels were in their proper places) until they reached the place of those who made the pan flour offerings. The two groups rejoined there and confirmed that everything was in order. Those who were to make the pan flour offerings were then left there to carry out their duties.

Tamid 1:4

The kohein who won the right to remove the ashes would go out to do so. The others would caution him not to touch any Temple vessel before washing his hands and feet from the basin. They would also inform him that the shovel was in the corner between the ramp and the altar on the west side of the ramp. No one went with him, nor did he carry a light. Rather, he traveled by the light of the altar fire and no one would see him or hear his voice until they heard the sound of the wooden pulley that Ben Katin made for the basin. They would declare that the time had arrived, at which point he washed his hands and feet from the basin and took the silver shovel. He then went to the top of the altar and pushed the coals to either side. He shoveled up the ashes in the center and then went down. When he reached the floor, he turned north and traveled along the east side of the ramp for about ten cubits (about 15 feet). He made a pile of coals (i.e., the ashes) on the floor three handbreadths (about nine inches) from the ramp in the same place where they would put the crops of birds and the ashes from the inside altar and the menorah.