We achieved stable levitation of cylindrical permanent magnets and irons using stacked ring-shaped high temperature superconducting (HTS) bulks with 20 mm ID, 60 mm OD and 50 mm height, and those were magnetized by field cooling method. The levitation characteristics of permanent magnets and iron samples located in the inner space of that levitation system were investigated experimentally. Iron samples with needle-shape and smaller than 1 mm diameter could not levitate stably. However, we found that the high strength of magnetized field was not necessary to levitate small needle-shaped irons. In order to levitate them, we need a uniform magnetic field in radial direction, so, a spherical solenoid magnet that can easily make a homogeneous magnetic field in inner space of HTS bulk annuli was developed. The spherical solenoid magnet, composed of seven solenoid coils with different inner and outer diameters, was designed by an electromagnetic analysis and fabricated. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.