King Solomon

“ Wise men came from far and near, but they were never able to puzzle King Solomon.
He knew all the trees and plants.
He understood the beasts, fowls and creeping things almost as well as he did people.
The fame of his knowledge spread into all lands. In the south, the great Queen of Sheba heard of the wonderful wisdom of Solomon and said, “I shall test his power for myself.”
She picked some clover blossoms from the field and bade a great artist make for her, in wax, flowers, buds and leaves exactly like them. ”

“ Let king Solomon swear unto me first of all that he will not slay his servant with the sword.' 52And Solomon said: 'If he shall show himself a worthy man, there shall not a hair of him fall to the earth; but if wickedness be found in him, he shall die.' 53So king Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar. And he came and prostrated himself before king Solomon; and Solomon said unto him: 'Go to thy house.'
2Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying: 2'I go the way of all the earth; be thou strong therefore, and show thyself a man ”

“ So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment, and armor, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.
And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, which he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem. ”

“ And they blew the trumpet, and all the people said: "God save King Solomon!" And the people came up after him, rejoicing with music and great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.
Thus Solomon was established in his kingdom, and reigned over all Israel and Judah.
Now Solomon loved the Lord—and it says "the Lord loved Solomon."
One day he went up to the high place at Gibeon to sacrifice to the Lord there; and he offered a thousand burnt offerings upon the altar. And the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream; and God said:
"Ask what I shall give thee!" ”

“ King Solomon, having completed the temple and his house, was lifted up with pride of heart, and regarded himself as the greatest of kings. Every day he was wont to bathe, and before entering the water, he entrusted his ring, wherein lay his power, to one of his wives. One day the evil spirit, Asmodeus, stole the ring, and, assuming Solomon's form, drove the naked king from the bath into the streets of Jerusalem. The wretched man wandered about his city scorned by all; then he fled into distant lands, none recognising in him the great and wise monarch. ”

“ Solomon had forty thousand racks for the horses of his carts, chariots and cars, and twelve thousand for horses to ride on, by which prefects brought necessary things for the table of King Solomon, with great diligence in their time. God gave to Solomon much wisdom and prudence in his heart, like to the gravel that is in the sea-side, and the sapience and wisdom of Solomon passed and went tofore the sapience of all them of the Orient and of Egypt, and he was the wisest of all men, and so he was named. ”

“ King Solomon is engaged in the work of building the Temple, and in him dwells a supernatural power, the wisdom, also called the spirit and glory of God. In virtue of the immanence in him of this power, Solomon has power over the spirits of the air, of the earth's surface, and of the nether world. The Testament opens rather abruptly with the descent of the vampire spirit Ornias upon Solomon's servant. ”

“ And she wrote a letter by them, enumerating the presents, and saying, "If thou art indeed a prophet, declare which among the slaves are youths, and which are girls; and without opening the casket make known its contents, and pierce the jewels, and thread the stones without the help of men or of genii." And she said to the Mamlûks, "If King Solomon speak to you, answer him gently like women." And she commanded the women to speak like men. Then she said to Mundzîr, "If King Solomon receive you with anger, fear not, for then he is but a man, and I am as strong as he. ”

“ And no spirit can live upon earth against this demon. I pray thee then, forasmuch as the spirit is a wind, contrive something according to the wisdom given in thee by the Lord thy God, and deign to send a man able to capture it. And behold, King Solomon, I and my people and all my land will serve thee unto death. And all Arabia shall be at peace with thee, if thou wilt perform this act of righteousness for us. Wherefore we pray thee, contemn not our humble prayer, and suffer not to be utterly brought to naught the eparchy subordinated to thy authority. ”

“ Solomon by means of his wives falleth into idolatry: God raiseth him adversaries, Adad, Razon, and Jeroboam: Solomon dieth.
11:1. And king Solomon loved many strange women, besides the daughter of Pharao, and women of Moab, and of Ammon, and of Edom, and of Sidon, and of the Hethites:
11:2. Of the nations concerning which the Lord said to the children of Israel: You shall not go in unto them, neither shall any of them come into yours: for they will most certainly turn away your hearts to follow their gods. And to these was Solomon joined with a most ardent love. ”

“ So King Solomon demanded of men and of genii, "Who knows how to pierce these jewels?" But not one among them could tell him. Then he asked the devils. And they answered, "Send to the worm called ʾIradah. So he sent, and the ʾIradah came, and took a hair in its mouth, and worked through each jewel until it came out on the other side. Then King Solomon asked the worm, "What thing dost thou desire?" "To live always in trees," it replied. ”

“ And you will do me the favor of providing food for my house.
10 And Solomon gave Solomon all the ceder and cypress trees he wanted. 11 And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand kors [26] of wheat as food for his household, and twenty kors of beaten oil, which Solomon gave to Hiram each year.
12 And Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a covenant.
13 And king Solomon raised forced labor from all Israel, and the labor force was thirty thousand men. 14 And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts. ”

“ King Solomon kept him under house arrest for that entire duration of time, restraining him from leaving until he had built the Temple. One day, he sat alone with Solomon in his palace. Solomon said to him, "It is written: He hath as it were the majestic strength of a rhino (Numbers 23:22) . [11] By way of allegorically expounding the meaning of the verse, we say that 'majestic strength' refers to the ministerial angels, while 'rhino' refers to the demons. What is your advantage over us?" ”

“ As for the eyes of the king, they were dark, like the darkest agate, like the heavens on a moonless night in summer; while his eye-lashes, that spread upward and downward like arrows, resembled dark rays around dark stars. And there was no man in all the universe who could bear the gaze of Solomon without casting down his eyes. And the lightnings of wrath in the eyes of the king would prostrate people to the earth. ”

“ Among the most familiar legends which cluster around Solomon’s rule is that of his green carpet woven of silk and of a magnitude sufficiently ample not alone to hold his throne, but an army of men to his right hand and a host of spirits to his left. At the king’s command the winds transported the entire equipment, slow or fast, according to his majesty’s pleasure, while the royal head was shaded by an enormous flock of birds on the wing. Countenance is given to this fable in the Koran,—“And his armies were gathered together unto Solomon, consisting of genii, and men, and birds.” ”

“ Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? The falls of great and good men are recorded in order that we may take warning by them to shun the temptations which they were overcome by. Solomon was famous for wisdom; there was no king like him for it; yet, when he married strange wives, his wisdom could not secure him from their snares, nay, it departed from him, and he did very foolishly. He was beloved of God, but his marrying strange wives threw him out of God's favour, and went near to extinguish the holy fire of grace in his soul: he was king over all Israel ”

“ It is one of a series of lyric idyls making up the poem of Solomon's Song. The story underlying this poem has been variously interpreted; the interpretation followed in this series (Biblical Idyls volume) is that King Solomon, visiting his vineyards on Mount Lebanon, has come by surprise upon a beautiful Shulammite maiden. As she flies from the royal suite he seeks her in shepherd disguise and wins her love, then he brings her as queen to his palace. ”

“ As is the case with most of the Oriental legends, it introduces the name of King Solomon, who, according to Oriental notions, was a mighty wizard rather than a wise king, and by means of his seal, on which was engraven the mystic symbol of Divinity, held sway over the birds, the beasts, the elements, and even over the Jinns and Afreets, i.e. the good and evil spirits, which are too ethereal for the material world and too gross for the spiritual, and therefore hold the middle place between them. ”

“ The mother quick replied,
“No, take the living child for thine,
Give me the one that died.
“O king, in pity, spare my boy,
And let him not be slain!
Thy handmaid then will hasten home,
Nor trouble thee again.”
“In nowise slay or hurt the babe,”
King Solomon replied,
“The mother’s heart shall plead for her,
Give her the living child!”
{191} SOLOMON’S WISDOM.
And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt."—Kings iv. ”

“ At last Bilqis renounced her royal state and cast away all care for worldly things, and, impelled by earnest desire to learn the true faith, presented herself at the court of King Solomon. Then Solomon commanded that the throne of Bilqis should be brought from Saba, and an 'Afrit offered to fetch it, but Asaf, the vizier anticipated him. 3 Afterwards Solomon proceeded with the building of the temple, wherein he was assisted by devils and fairies. Then God tried Solomon by placing on his throne a false counterpart of him. ”

“ And we shall lead astray the inhabited world for a long season, until the Son of God is stretched upon the cross. For never before doth arise a king like unto him, one frustrating us all, whose mother shall not have contact with man. Who else can receive such authority over spirits, except he, whom the first devil will seek to tempt, but will not prevail over? The number of his name is 644 which is Emmanuel. Wherefore, King Solomon, thy time is evil, and thy years short and evil, and to thy servant shall thy kingdom be given *. ”

“ In such array did she come before Solomon, and the king exclaimed joyously:
“Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun? O, Sulamith, thy beauty is more terrible than an army with flaunted banners! Seven hundred wives have I known and three hundred concubines, and virgins without number,—thou art but one, my fair! The queens shall behold thee and extoll thee, and all women upon earth shall praise thee. O, Sulamith, that day when thou wilt become my spouse and queen shall be the happiest my heart has known.” ”

“ So Solomon passed away—the last king of all Palestine till another king arose a thousand years later, like him in his fondness for magnificence, like him in his tamperings with idolatry, like him in being the builder of the Temple, but in all other respects a far more grievous sinner and a far more inexcusable tyrant—Herod, falsely called "The Great." ”

“ Know ye that Solomon son of David hath sent requiring me to give him my daughter to wife, and break my idol of carnelian and enter his faith!’ And they replied, O mighty King, how shall Solomon do thus with thee? Even could he come at thee in the midst of this vast ocean, he could not prevail against thee, for the Marids of the Jann will fight on thy side and thou wilt ask succour of thine idol whom thou servest, and he will help thee and give thee victory over him. ”

“ Music, "Hail to the Monarch." (See Longer Version.)
(Cantata of Esther)
[Pg 118]
(Enter King Solomon followed by Two Women and Baby, also by Pages and more Soldiers if desired for effect. The Children bow low.)
Solomon (lifting his hand) : The Lord be with you!
All: And with thee also, O thou son of David!
Child (offers silver basket of oranges) : O king, a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold, in baskets of silver, and the king that faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established forever.
Solomon (in delight) : Ha! Who said that? ”

“ With my own eyes I have seen the countless diamonds stored in Solomon’s treasure chamber behind the white Death; but through the treachery of Gagool the witch-finder I might bring nought away, scarcely my life. Let him who comes follow the map, and climb the snow of Sheba’s left breast till he reaches the nipple, on the north side of which is the great road Solomon made, from whence three days’ journey to the King’s Palace. Let him kill Gagool. Pray for my soul. ”

“ It is this that makes him linger so lovingly on the glories of the reign of Solomon. At first they seem to inaugurate an era of overwhelming and permanent prosperity. Because Solomon was the heir of David whom God had chosen, his dominion is established without an effort in spite of a formidable conspiracy. Under his wise, pacific rule the united kingdom springs to the zenith of its greatness. The writer dwells with fond regret upon the glories of the Temple, the Empire, and the Court of the wise king. ”