GregL writes:

But I thought that maybe a few layers of
ceramic tile might do the trick in it's place.

Porcelain tile can certainly take the heat.

Depending on the size of the tile and localized heating gradients, you may
get broken tiles from expansion, but porcelain tile is amazingly tough.

I've used tile scraps to build Nichrome resistance wire heaters, and
they'll take a red heat without problems. This is what commerical power
resistors are made from, and they are designed to sustain horrific
overloads.

The key is the degree of firing to *porcelain* status, which means a hot
and long firing that fully fuses the clay, not like cheap tile that is just
fired enough for partial, porous fusing. Kind of like casting molten metal
versus sintering a powder.