Spirit Temple

The Spirit Temple is the eighth dungeon in Ocarina of Time.

Location and Overview
Placed inside the Goddess of Sand, the temple is located in the westernmost area of the Desert Colossus in the Haunted Wasteland. It lies past the Gerudo's fortress complex. Constructed by the ancient ancestors of the Gerudo, it served as Nabooru's headquarters until Ganondorf rose to power, when it comes a base of operations for the King of Thieves and his surrogate mothers. It is the only place in the game where Link encounters Anubis and White Bubbles.

Like the Shadow Temple, the Spirit Temple has two portions, each requiring a different age of Link. However, instead of being in a separate dungeon, Link's child form explores the actual temple. The Spirit Temple carries a theme of the relation between past and future, and the statues in the temple's entrance tell poems relating to such.

Entrance Procedure
As an adult, Link finds the temple after following a ghost that guides him across the desert. However, when he enters the temple for the first time, he cannot make any progress due to the obstacles in front of him being beyond his tools. The west route can only be accessed through a hole too small for Adult Link, and the east route is blocked by a block too big for him. After exiting the temple, he finds Sheik and learns the Requiem of Spirit, which allows him to come back later to the area anytime regardless of his age. The young hero then goes to the Temple of Time and travels back to the past, and plays the new tune to start exploring the temple (western route) as a child.

Only after finding the proper tool, Link can go back to the Temple of Time to return as Adult Link to the Spirit Temple and explore it in the future.

Spirit Temple as a Child
As a child, Link explores the western wing of the temple through a crawl space. This is the only time in this age that he encounters Nabooru, who asks him to fetch her the Silver Gauntlets. The puzzles mirror those seen in the first three dungeons (Child Link's period): In one room, a switch behind a fence must be pressed with the boomerang, another switch must be held with a statue, torches must be lit with a Deku Stick, etc.

Upon defeating an Iron Knuckle and finding the Silver Gauntlets, Link has his final meeting with Kaepora Gaebora and witnesses Koume and Kotake abduct Nabooru.

Spirit Temple as an Adult
The adult portion of the temple is not accessible until after Link obtains the Silver Gauntlets. With these worn, Link is able to explore the eastern wing of the temple as an adult by moving Marble Blocks. Having now a larger repertoire of items, he must solve several puzzles involving light until he ultimately finds the Mirror Shield behind an Iron Knuckle. With said shield worn, Link's next objective is to find the Boss Key in order to access the whereabouts of Koume and Kotake.

Before battling the bosses, though, Link must first battle a third Iron Knuckle.

After defeating Twinrova, it is revealed that Nabooru is the Sage of Spirit.

Master Quest
In the Master Quest version of Ocarina of Time, there are Wallmasters in several rooms of the dungeon. Some enemies, like Beamos, Red Bubbles and Stalfos are found in greater numbers, but there is only one Anubis now. There are more Silver Rupee puzzles; and there is a room with a spinning platform where a Stalfos is fought. Bombchu are used several times in the first half of the dungeon and, just like other Master Quest dungeons, Din's Fire and the Song of Time are also used. Instead of Lizalfos, Dinolfos are fought, and instead of White Bubbles, giant Green Bubbles are found. Armos are no longer found in the dungeon. It is generally thought that the Scarecrow's Song is required to progress, but there is a torch that can be hit with the Hookshot as well, although the red marker will not appear on it. It is also necessary to go through the first half of the dungeon backwards as an adult to make a chest with a Small Key appear; the key can only be collected as a child. There is a black Iron Knuckle in a room with two Gold Skulltulas; some stone thrones must be broken to collect them. New enemies include a Like Like, Fire Keese, several Gibdos, Leevers, the previously mentioned Dinolfos, and even a Club Moblin. The latter is found in an optional room where all six non-warp songs must be played, with some clues telling which one to play (Time Block for Song of Time, a sun for Sun's Song, even a Lon Lon Ranch crate for Epona's Song), which in turn unlocks access to a Skulltula-filled room with a single Gold Skulltula.

Trivia

 * On the giant female statue roughly in the middle of the Spirit Temple, if Link aims the Longshot at one of the stars on its nipples, he will grapple on to it. However, he cannot grapple any other part of the statue besides the gate hidden inside its face. This is likely to have been a joke on behalf of the developers.
 * It is possible to reach the east side of the Temple as an Adult by using the Longshot at the chest that contained the Silver Gauntlets.
 * Both this dungeon and Forest Temple feature the highest number of mini-boss battles in the game: Three in total. However, all three battles in Spirit Temple are against Iron Knuckles, whereas the first two battles in Forest Temple are against Stalfos and the third fight is against the last Poe Sister, Meg.
 * The Spirit Temple, though generally considered the denouement to Ganon's Castle, can be completed before the Shadow Temple (it shares this trait with the temples in Majora's Mask). In fact, the Spirit Medallion comes before the Shadow Medallion on the Quest Status subscreen as well as the file select screen, as well as the Requiem of Spirit being before the Nocturne of Shadow, implying that the Spirit Temple was meant to be completed before the Shadow Temple.
 * This is the only dungeon in the game with two major items to be gained: the Silver Gauntlets and the Mirror Shield. Technically, though, both major dungeon items are found in the Desert Colossus, just outside the temple. Through glitches, both items can be obtained without even entering the temple. In the 3DS version of the game, however, the two treasure chests containing said items only appear when the players reach the platforms they are on, which was made to prevent this trick.
 * The climax cinematic of the Spirit Temple is notably present in the opening cinematic in the game, before Start is pressed.
 * An image over one of the temple's doorways may depict Vaati.
 * The temple's interior somewhat resembles a palace, and the Iron Knuckle is fought (as a child) inside a throne room. Also, it is inhabited by Nabooru and used as a base of operations for Ganondorf's surrogate mothers later on. This implies that the Spirit Temple is the palace and seat for Gerudo leaders.

Theory
There is a possibility that the Arbiter's Grounds from Twilight Princess could be in fact the Spirit Temple due to their similar themes, the presence of the Goddess of the Sand, and their identical locations at the far end of the desert. Also, there is a large round mirror (the main mirror that reflects the light Link needs to reach Twinrova's lair) that greatly resembles the Mirror of Twilight, another indicator of their connection to each other.

It is also speculated that this is the Earth Temple from, due to the presence of a very stylised colossus which opens up a new chamber when, as in the Spirit Temple, the mirror shield is used to reflect light at its face.