In the biblical Noah’s Ark story, the ark had three levels or stories.
Genesis 6:16 instructs Noah to make the ark with lower, second, and third decks. The same verse also mentions a window and a door, placing the ark’s internal arrangement alongside its overall dimensions. The three-level design is one of the narrative’s specific construction details.
Readers sometimes confuse the ark’s three levels with the three animal groupings often discussed in retellings. Genesis does not provide a complete modern inventory of species or a deck-by-deck passenger list. It gives broad instructions for preserving Noah’s family and representatives of living creatures.
The word “story” here means a level or deck of a building, not a separate episode in the narrative. Artistic reconstructions often show ramps, stalls, or elaborate compartments, but those features go beyond what Genesis explicitly describes. The biblical text’s firm detail is simply that the vessel contained three levels, along with rooms and a window.