its contents.”
Then King David said, “Let the treasure be divided, and let half go to
one, and half go to the other.”
But Solomon stood up and said to the plaintiff, “Hast thou not a son?”
He said, “I have.”
Then said Solomon to the defendant, “Hast thou not a daughter?” He
answered, “I have.”
“Then,” said Solomon, “give thy daughter to the son of this man who sold
thee the house, and let the treasure go as a marriage gift to thy
daughter and his son.” And all applauded this judgment.
On another occasion, a husbandman came before the judgment-seat to lay
complaint against a herdsman, whose sheep had broken into his field, and
had pastured on his young wheat.
Then King David said, “Let some of the sheep be given to the
husbandman.”
But Solomon stood up, and said, “Not so; let the husbandman have the
wool, and the milk of the flock, till the wheat is grown up again as it
was before the sheep destroyed it.”
And all wondered at his wisdom.
But the king’s elders and councillors were filled with envy, because
this child’s opinion was preferred before theirs; and they complained to
King David.
Then David said, “Call an assembly of the people, and prove Solomon
before them, whether he be learned in the Law, and whether he have
understanding and wit.”
So the people were assembled, and the elders took council together how
they might perplex him with hard questions. But or ever they asked him,
he answered what they had devised, and they were greatly confounded, so
that the people supposed this was a preconcerted scene arranged by the
king. Then, when the elders were silenced, Solomon turned to their
chief, and said, “I too will prove you with questions. What you have
asked me have been trials of my learning, but what I will ask you shall
put to proof the readiness of your wits. What is all, and what is
nothing? What is something, and what is naught?”
The elder was silent; he thought, but he knew not what was the answer.
And all the people perplexed themselves to discover the riddle, but they
could not. Then said Solomon, “God is all, and the world He made is as
nothing before Him. The faithful is something, but the hypocrite is
naught.”
Thereupon he turned to a second, and he said: “What are most, and what
are fewest? What is the sweetest, and what is the bitterest?” But when
the second could find no solution to these questions, Solomon answered,
“Most men are unbelievers, the fewest have true faith. The sweetest
thing is the possession of a virtuous wife, good children, and a
competence; the bitterest thing is to have a disreputable wife,
disorderly children, and penury.”
Then Solomon turned to a third elder and asked: “What is the most odious
sight, and what is the most beautiful sight? What is the surest thing,
and what is that which is most insecure?”
And when this elder also was unable to give an answer, Solomon
interpreted his riddle once more, “The most odious sight is to see a
righteous man fall away; the most beautiful sight is to see a sinner
repent. The surest thing is death, the most insecure thing is life.”
After that Solomon said to all the people, “Ye see that the oldest and
the most learned men are not always the wisest. True wisdom comes not
with years, nor is derived from books, but is a gift of God the
All-wise.”
Solomon by his words threw the whole assembly into astonishment, and all
the heads of the people cried with one voice, “Praised be the Lord, who
has given to our king a son who surpasses all in wisdom, and who is
worthy to ascend the throne of his father David.”
And David thanked God that He had given him such a wise son, and now he
desired but one thing further of God, and that was to see him who was to
be his companion in Paradise; for to every man is allotted by God one
man to be his friend and comrade in the Land of Bliss.
So David prayed to God, and his prayer was heard, and a voice fell from
heaven and bade him confer the kingdom upon his son Solomon, and then to
go forth, and the Lord would lead him to the place where his companion
dwelt.
David therefore had his son Solomon crowned king, and then he went forth
out of Jerusalem, and he was in pilgrim’s garb, with a staff in his
hand; and he went from city to city, and from village to village, but he
found not the man whom he sought. One day, after the lapse of many
weeks, he drew near to a village upon the borders of the Mediterranean
Sea, and alongside of him walked a poorly dressed man laden with a heavy
bundle of faggots. This man was very old and reverend of aspect, and
David watched him. He saw him dispose of his wood and then give half the
money he had obtained by the sale of it to a poor person. After that he
bought a piece of bread and retired from the town. As he went, there
passed a blind woman, and the old man broke his bread in half, and gave
one portion to the woman; and he continued his course till he reached
the mountains from which he had brought his load in the morning.
David thought, “This man well deserves to be my companion for eternity,
for he is pious, charitable, and reverend of aspect: I must ask his
name.”
He went after the old man, and he found him in a cave among the rocks,
which was lighted by a rent above. David stood without and heard the
hermit pray, and read the Tora and the Psalms, till the sun went down.
Then he lighted a lamp and began his evening prayers; and when they were
finished, he drew forth the piece of bread, and ate the half of it.
David, who had not ventured to interrupt the devotions of the old
hermit, now entered the cave and saluted him.
The hermit asked, “Who art thou? I have seen no man here before, save
only Mata, son of Johanna, the companion destined to King David in
Paradise.”
David told his name, and asked after this Mata. But the aged man could
give him no information of his whereabouts. “But,” said he, “go over
these mountains, and observe well what thou lightest upon, and it may be
thou wilt find Mata.”
David thanked him, and continued his search. For long it was profitless.
He traversed the stony dales and the barren mountains, and saw no trace
of human foot. At last, just as hope was abandoning him, on the summit
of a rugged peak he saw a wet spot. Then he stood still in surprise.
“How comes there to be a patch of soft and sloppy ground here?” he
asked; “the topmost peak of a stony mountain is not the place where
springs bubble up.”
As he thus mused, an aged man came up the other side of the mountain.
His eyes were depressed to the earth, so that he saw not David. And when
he came to the wet patch, he stood still, and prayed with such fervour,
that rivulets of tears flowed out of his eyes, and sank into the soil;
and thus David learnt how it was that the mountain-top was wet.
Then David thought, “Surely this man, whose eyes are such copious
fountains of tears, must be my companion in Paradise.”
Yet he ventured not to interrupt him in his prayer, till he heard him
ask, “O my God! pardon King David his sins, and save him from further
trespass! for my sake be merciful to him, for Thou hast destined him to
be my comrade for all eternity!”
Then David ran towards him, but the old man tottered and fell, and
before the king reached him he was dead.
So David dug into the ground which had been moistened by the tears of
Mata, and laid him there, and said the funeral prayer over him, and
covered him with the earth, and then returned to Jerusalem.
And when he came into his harem, the Angel of Death stood there and
greeted him with the words, “God has heard thy supplications; now has
thy life reached its end.”
Then David said, “The Lord’s will be done!” and he fell down upon the
ground, and expired.
Gabriel descended to comfort Solomon, and to give him a heavenly shroud
in which to wrap David. And all Israel followed the bier to Machpelah,
where Solomon laid him by the side of Abraham and Joseph.[655]
It will doubtless interest the reader to have an English version of the
Psalm supposed to have been composed by David after the slaying of
Goliath, which is not included in the Psalter, as it is supposed to be
apocryphal.
Psalm CLI. (_Pusillus eram_).
1. I was small among my brethren; and growing up in my father’s
house I kept my father’s sheep.
2. My hands made the organ: and my fingers shaped the psaltery.
3. And who declared unto my Lord! He, the Lord, He heard all things.
4. He sent His angel, and He took me from my father’s sheep: He
anointed me in mercy with His unction.
5. Great and goodly are my brethren: but with them the Lord was not
well pleased.
6. I went to meet the stranger: and he cursed me by all his idols.
7. But I smote off his head with his own drawn sword: and I blotted
out the reproach of Israel.
This simple and beautiful psalm does not exist in Hebrew, but is found,
in Greek, in some psalters of the Septuagint version, headed “A Psalm of
David when he had slain Goliath.” S. Athanasius mentions it with praise,
in his address to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms, and
in the Synopsis of Holy Scripture. It was versified in Greek in A.D.
360, by Apollinarius Alexandrinus.[656]
The subjoined shield of David is given in a Hebrew book on the
properties and medicaments of things. It is said to be a certain
protection against fire. A cake of bread must be made, and on it must be
impressed the seal or shield of David, having in the corner the word
ט״יר and in the middle אנ״לא (Thou art mighty to everlasting, O
Jehovah); and it must be cast aside into the fire with the words of
Psalm cvi. 30, “_Then stood up Phinees and prayed; and so the plague
ceased_;” and also Exod. xii. 27, “_It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s
pass-over, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in
Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians, and delivered our homes._”[657]
Footnote 620:
Ps. li. 5.
Footnote 621:
Midrash, fol. 204, col. 1.
Footnote 622:
Ps. cxviii. 22.
Footnote 623:
See the story in the Legends of Adam.
Footnote 624:
Zohar, in Bartolocci, i. fol. 85, col. 2.
Footnote 625:
Jalkut, fol. 32, col. 2 (Parasch 2, numb. 134).
Footnote 626:
Ibid. (Parasch. 2, numb. 127).
Footnote 627:
1 Sam. xvii. 43.
Footnote 628:
2 Sam. iii. 29.
Footnote 629:
Zohar, in Bartolocci, i. fol. 99, col. 1.
Footnote 630:
Talmud, Tract. Sanhedrim, fol. 107.
Footnote 631:
1 Kings ii. 11.
Footnote 632:
2 Sam. v. 5.
Footnote 633:
Bartolocci, i. f. 100.
Footnote 634:
1 Sam. xxiv. 4.
Footnote 635:
Bartolocci, i. f. 122, col. 1.
Footnote 636:
1 Kings i. 1.
Footnote 637:
Bartolocci, i. f. 122, col. 2.
Footnote 638:
Ps. lvii. 9; Bartolocci, i. fol. 125, col. 2.
Footnote 639:
Talmud, Tract. Sota, fol. 10 b.
Footnote 640:
Ps. xxii. 21.
Footnote 641:
Midrash Tillim, fol. 21, col. 2.
Footnote 642:
Eisenmenger, i. p. 409.
Footnote 643:
Ps. xviii. 36.
Footnote 644:
Ps. lv. 6.
Footnote 645:
Ps. lxviii. 13.
Footnote 646:
Talmud, Tract. Sanhedrim, fol. 95, col. 1.
Footnote 647:
Tract. Sabbath, fol. 30, col. 2.
Footnote 648:
Tabari, i. p. 426; Weil, p. 208.
Footnote 649:
Weil, p. 207.
Footnote 650:
Tabari, p. 428.
Footnote 651:
The Arabs call her Saga.
Footnote 652:
The story in the Talmud is almost the same, with this difference:
Bathsheba was washing herself behind a beehive, then the beautiful
bird perched on the hive, and David shot an arrow at it and broke the
hive, and exposed Bathsheba to view. In the Rabbinic tale, David had
asked for the gift of prophecy, and God told him he must be tried.
This he agreed to, and the temptation to adultery was that sent him.
(Talmud, Tract. Sanhedrim, fol. 107, col. 2; Jalkut, fol. 22, col. 2.)
Footnote 653:
Koran, Sura xxxviii.
Footnote 654:
Weil, pp. 212, 213.
Footnote 655:
Weil, pp. 213-224.
Footnote 656:
Greek text, and Latin translation in Fabricius: Pseudigr. Vet. Test.
t. ii. pp. 905-7.
Footnote 657:
סגולות ורפואות; Amst. 1703.
XXXVIII.
SOLOMON.[658]
1. HOW SOLOMON OBTAINED POWER.
After Solomon had executed the last offices for his father, he rested in
a dale betwixt Hebron and Jerusalem, and fell asleep. As he returned to
himself, there stood before him eight angels, each with countless wings,
diverse in kinds and colours; and the angels bowed themselves before him
three times.
“Who are ye?” asked Solomon, with eyes still closed.
“We are the angels ruling over the eight winds of heaven,” was their
reply. “God hath sent us to give thee dominion over ourselves and over
the winds subject to us. They will storm and bluster, or breathe softly,
at thy pleasure. At thy command they will swoop down on earth, and bear
thee over the highest mountains.”
The greatest of the angels gave him a jewel inscribed with “God is Power
and Greatness,” and said, “When thou hast a command for us, then raise
this stone towards heaven, and we shall appear before thee as thy
servants.”
When these angels had taken their departure, there appeared four more,
of whom each was unlike the other. One was in fashion as a great whale,
another as an eagle, the third as a lion, and the fourth as a serpent.
And they said, “We are they who rule over all the creatures that move in
the earth, and air, and water; and God hath sent us to give thee
dominion over all creatures, that they may serve thee and thy friends
with all good, and fight against thine enemies with all their force.”
The angel who ruled over the winged fowls extended to Solomon a precious
stone, with the inscription, “Let all creatures praise the Lord!” and
said, “By virtue of this stone, raised above thy head, canst thou call
us to thy assistance, and to fulfil thy desire.”
Solomon immediately ordered the angels to bring before him a pair of
every living creature that moves in the water, flies in the air, and
walks or glides or creeps on the earth.
The angels vanished, and in an instant they were before Solomon once
more, and there were assembled in his sight pairs of every creature,
from the elephant to the smallest fly.
Solomon conversed with the angels, and was instructed by them in the
habits, virtues, and names of all living creatures; he listened to the
complaints of the beasts, birds, and fishes, and by his wisdom he
rectified many evil customs amongst them.
He entertained himself longest with the birds, both on account of their
beautiful speech, which he understood, and also because of the wise
sentences which they uttered.
This is the signification of the cry of the peacock: “With what measure
thou judgest others, thou shalt thyself be judged.”
This is the song of the nightingale: “Contentment is the greatest
happiness.”
The turtle dove calls, “Better were it for some created things that they
had never been created.”
The peewit pipes, “He that hath no mercy, will not find mercy himself.”
The bird syrdar cries, “Turn to the Lord, ye sinners!”
The swallow screams, “Do good, and ye shall receive a reward.”
This is the pelican’s note: “Praise the Lord in heaven and earth.”
The dove chants, “The fashion of this world passeth away, but God
remaineth eternal.”
The kata says, “Silence is the best safeguard.”
The cry of the eagle is, “However long life may be, yet its inevitable
term is death.”
The croak of the raven is, “The further from man, the happier I.”
The cock crows before the dawn and in the day, “Remember thy Creator, O
thoughtless man!”
Solomon chose the cock and the peewit to be his constant companions—the
first because of its cry, and the second because it can see through the
earth as through glass, and could therefore tell him where fountains of
water were to be found.
After he had stroked the dove, he bade her dwell with her young in the
temple he was about to build to the honour of the Most High. This pair
of doves, in a few years, multiplied to such an extent, that all who
sought the temple moved through the quarter of the town it occupied
under the shadow of the wings of doves.
When Solomon was again alone, an angel appeared to him, whose upper half
was like to earth, and whose lower half was like to water. He bowed
himself before the king and said, “I am created by God to do His will on
the dry land and in the watery sea. Now, God has sent me to serve thee,
and thou canst rule over earth and water. At thy command the highest
mountains will be made plain, and the level land will rise into steep
heights. Rivers and seas will dry up, and the desert will stream with
water at thy command.” Then he gave to him a precious stone, with the
legend engraved thereon, “Heaven and earth serve God.”
Finally, an angel presented to him another stone, whereon was cut,
“There is no God save God, and Mohammed is the messenger of God.”
“By means of this stone,” said the angel, “thou shalt have dominion over
the whole world of spirits, which is far greater than that of men and
beasts, and occupies the space between earth and heaven. One portion of
the spirits is faithful, and praises the One only God; the other portion
is unfaithful: some adore fire, others the sun, others worship the
planets, many revere winter. The good spirits surround the true
believers among men, and protect them from all evil; the evil spirits
seek to injure them and deceive them.”
Solomon asked to see the Jinns in their natural and original shape. The
angel shot like a column of flame into heaven, and shortly returned with
the Satans and Jinns in great hosts: and Solomon, though he had power
over them, shuddered with disgust at their loathsome appearance. He saw
men’s heads attached to the necks of horses, whose feet were those of an
ass; the wings of an eagle attached to the hump of a dromedary; the
horns of a gazelle on the head of a peacock.[659]
2. HOW SOLOMON FEASTED ALL FLESH.
When Solomon returned home, he placed the four stones, which the angels
had given him, in a ring, so that he might at any moment exercise his
authority over the realms of spirits and beasts, the earth, the winds,
and the sea.
His first care was to subject the Jinns. He made them all appear before
him, with the exception of the mighty Sachr, who kept himself in
concealment on an unknown island in the ocean, and the great Eblis, the
master of all evil spirits, to whom God had promised complete liberty
till the day of the last Judgment.
When all the demons were assembled, Solomon pressed his seal upon their
necks, to mark them as his slaves. Then he commanded all the male Jinns
to collect every sort of material for the construction of the temple he
was about to build. He bade also the female Jinns cook, bake, wash,
weave, and carry water; and what they made he distributed amongst the
poor. The meats they cooked were placed on tables, which covered an area
of four square miles; and daily thirty thousand portions of beef, as
many portions of mutton, and very many birds and fishes were devoured.
The Jinns and devils sat at iron tables, the poor at tables of wood, the
heads of the people at silver tables, the wise and pious at tables of
gold; and these latter were served by Solomon in person.
One day, when all spirits, men, beasts, and birds rose satisfied from
the tables, Solomon besought God to permit him to feed to the full all
created animals at once. God replied that he demanded an impossibility.
“But,” said he, “try, to-morrow, what thou canst do to satisfy the
dwellers in the sea.”
On the morrow, accordingly, Solomon bade the Jinns lade a hundred
thousand camels and the same number of mules with corn, and lead them to
the sea-shore. He then cried to the fishes and said: “Come, ye dwellers
in the water, eat and be satisfied!”
Then came all manner of fishes to the surface of the water, and Solomon
cast the corn to them, and they ate and were satisfied, and dived out of
sight. But all at once a whale lifted his head above the surface, and it
was like a mountain. Solomon bade the spirits pour one sack of corn
after another down the throat of the monster, till all the store was
exhausted, there remained not a single grain. But the whale cried, “Feed
me, Solomon! feed me! never have I suffered from hunger as I have this
day!”
Solomon asked the whale if there were any more in the deep like him. The
fish answered: “There are of my race as many as a thousand kinds, and
the smallest is so large that thou wouldst seem in its belly to be but a
sand-grain in the desert.”
Solomon cast himself upon the earth, and began to weep, and prayed to
God to pardon him for his presumption.
“My kingdom,” called to him the Most High, “is far greater than thine.
Stand up, and behold one creature over which no man has yet obtained the
mastery.”
Then the sea began to foam and toss, as though churned by the eight
winds raging against it, and out of the tumbling brine rose the
Leviathan, so great that it could easily have swallowed seven thousand
whales such as that which Solomon had attempted to feed; and the
Leviathan cried, with a voice like the roar of thunder: “Praised be God,
who by His mighty power preserves me from perishing by hunger.”[660]
3. THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE.[661]
When Solomon returned from the sea-shore to Jerusalem, he heard the
noise of the hammers, and saws, and axes of the Jinns who were engaged
in the building of the temple; and the noise was so great that the
inhabitants of Jerusalem could not hear one another speak. Therefore he
commanded the Jinns to cease from their work, and he asked them if there
was no means whereby the metals and stones could be shaped and cut
without making so much noise.
Then one of the spirits stepped forth and said: “The means is known only
to the mighty Sachr, who has hitherto escaped your authority.”
“Is it impossible to capture this Sachr?” asked Solomon.
“Sachr,” replied the Jinn, “is stronger than all the rest of us
together, and he excels us in speed as he does in strength. However, I
know that once every month he goes to drink of a fountain in the land of
Hidjr; by this, O king, thou mayest be able to bring him under thy
sceptre.”
Solomon, thereupon, commanded a Jinn to fly to Hidjr, and to empty the
well of water, and to fill it up with strong wine. He bade other Jinns
remain in ambush beside the well and watch the result.[662]
After some weeks, when Solomon was pacing his terrace before his palace,
he saw a Jinn flying, swifter than the wind, from the direction of
Hidjr, and he asked, “What news of Sachr?”
“Sachr lies drunk on the edge of the fountain,” said the Jinn; “and we
have bound him with chains as thick as the pillars of the temple;
nevertheless, he will snap them as the hair of a maiden, when he wakes
from his drunken sleep.”
Solomon instantly mounted the winged Jinn and bade him transport him to
the well at Hidjr. In less than an hour he stood beside the intoxicated
demon. He was not a moment too soon, for the fumes of the wine were
passing off, and, if Sachr had opened his eyes, Solomon would have been
unable to constrain him. But now he pressed his signet upon the nape of
his neck: Sachr uttered a cry so that the earth rocked on its
foundations.
“Fear not,” said Solomon, “mighty Jinn; I will restore thee to liberty
if thou wilt tell me how I may without noise cut and shape the hardest
metals.”
“I myself know no means,” answered the demon; “but the raven can tell
thee how to do this. Take the eggs out of the raven’s nest and place a
crystal cover upon them, and thou shalt see how the raven will break
it.”
Solomon followed the advice of Sachr. A raven came, and fluttered some
time round the cover, and seeing that she could not reach her eggs, she
vanished, and returned shortly with a stone in her beak, named Samur or
Schamir; and no sooner had she touched the crystal therewith, than it
clave asunder.
“Whence hast thou this stone?” asked Solomon of the raven.
“It comes from a mountain in the far west,” replied the bird.
Solomon commanded a Jinn to follow the raven to the mountain, and to
bring him more of these stones. Then he released Sachr as he had
promised. When the chains were taken off him, he uttered a loud cry of
joy, which, in Solomon’s ears, bore an ominous sound as of mocking
laughter.
When the Jinn returned with the stone Schamir, Solomon mounted a Jinn
and was borne back to Jerusalem, where he distributed the stones amongst
the Jinns, and they were able to cut the rocks for the temple without
noise.[663]