There are multiple clear references to the Hebrews sleeping in tents during the Exodus. But what were they made of?
Keeping in mind that they did not have lots of time to prepare for the journey (though they knew leaving was possible for perhaps as long as a year), what materials would have been available to them?
Tent poles could have been made from bamboo or papyrus. But the tent itself is more problematic. Linen was available but not easy to come by. They had enough for clothing and other uses such as in the kitchen. It would take a monarch's wardrobe's worth of clothes to stitch together a tent able to hold a small family.
A fancy tent (of the kind we might imagine the Israelites' tents looked like) takes 58 yards (53 meters) of fabric (58-60 inches (147-152 cm) wide) and an awful lot of other materials to hold it together and stand it up. This does not include a floor. You could probably fit 8-12 people here (depending on how many are children).
A lower tent with slanted sides, designed only for sitting up in, not for standing, would take less fabric. This one sleeps 2-4 but I could see getting 6-8 in there, if that includes small children and no storage space.
Even if you assume they're all crammed in there pretty tight and they are slanting the roof and there's no room to stand, it's still a lot of fabric for each family. Perhaps there wasn't a roof at all? If the sukkah comes from these tents, the roof would be reeds or something pretty light. Or nothing.
Linen is the most likely (light and easy to carry and work with) but very difficult to get in those quantities. They did carry bolts of fabric but they were for the mishkan and not enough for everyone to sleep in.
Wool was readily available (they had flocks of sheep) but it's a huge amount of work to turn into fabric. Even felt (which requires no weaving) has to be sheered, cleaned/washed, and stretched, then cut and sewn up. It's moderately heavy. They would not have wool or felt stockpiled and there's no mention of this task in the Torah.
Animal skins also work for tents but they require a lot of preparation and are quite heavy.
Nomadic peoples (like Abraham, Issac, and Jacob) would have fully realized tents, and the pack animals to carry them. But the Hebrews fleeing Egyptian slavery (where they lived in mudbrick huts)? Would they have full tents in the first few months after they left? Where would they have gotten the materials? And how could they have carried them?
Whether the concept of "tent" is metaphorical or practical, what does that look like and what materials did they use?