Ant: "Were I not greater than thou, God would not have led thee hither
to put me on thy hand."
Exasperated, Solomon threw her to the ground, and said: "Thou knowest
who I am? I am Solomon, the son of David."
Not at all intimidated, the ant reminded the king of his earthly
origin, and admonished him to humility, and the king went off abashed.
Next he came to a magnificent building, into which he sought to enter
in vain; he could find no door leading into it. After long search the
demons came upon an eagle seven hundred years old, and he, unable to
give them any information, sent him to his nine hundred years old
brother, whose eyrie was higher than his own, and who would probably be
in a position to advise them. But he in turn directed them to go to his
still older brother. His age counted thirteen hundred years, and he had
more knowledge than himself. This oldest one of the eagles reported
that he remembered having heard his father say there was a door on the
west side, but it was covered up by the dust of the ages that had
passed since it was last used. So it turned out to be. They found an
old iron door with the inscription: "We, the dwellers in this palace,
for many years lived in comfort and luxury; then, forced by hunger, we
ground pearls into flour instead of wheat but to no avail, and so,
when we were about to die, we bequeathed this palace to the eagles." A
second statement contained a detailed description of the wonderful
palace, and mentioned where the keys for the different chambers were to
be found. Following the directions on the door, Solomon inspected the
remarkable building, whose apartments were made of pearls and precious
stones. Inscribed on the doors he found the following three wise
proverbs, dealing with the vanity of all earthly things, and
admonishing men to be humble:
1. O son of man, let not time deceive thee; thou must wither away, and
leave thy place, to rest in the bosom of the earth.
2. Haste thee not, move slowly, for the world is taken from one and
bestowed upon another.
3. Furnish thyself with food for the journey, prepare thy meal while
daylight lasts, for thou wilt not remain on earth forever, and thou
knowest not the day of thy death. (78)
In one of the chambers, Solomon saw a number of statues, among them one
that looked as though alive. When he approached it, it called out in a
loud voice: "Hither, ye satans, Solomon has come to undo you." Suddenly
there arose great noise and tumult among the statues. Solomon
pronounced the Name, and quiet was restored. The statues were
overthrown, and the sons of the satans ran into the sea and were
drowned. From the throat of the lifelike statue he drew a silver plate
inscribed with characters which he could not decipher, but a youth from
the desert told the king: "These letters are Greek, and the words mean:
'I, Shadad ben Ad, ruled over a thousand thousand provinces, rode on a
thousand thousand horses, had a thousand thousand kings under me, and
slew a thousand thousand heroes, and when the Angel of Death approached
me, I was powerless.'" (79)