The Hebrew word most often employed to denote a basket is sal. It is used for the three baskets containing white bread that Pharaoh’s chief of the bakers dreamed he was carrying on his head, a dream Joseph rightly interpreted as signifying death for the dreamer. (Ge 40:16-19, 22)

While the Scriptures do not describe the sal, it seems that this type of basket was of fine weave and, in later times at least, was made of peeled willows or palm leaves. It may have been fairly large and flat, thus being a type convenient for carrying bread, as in the royal baker’s prophetic dream.