other extreme of social life, that so he might gain the excitement of a fresh sensation. The poet has become the philosopher, the mystic has passed into the moral- ist. But the man passed through both stages without being permanently the better for either. They were to him but phases of his life which he had known and ex- hausted (Eccles. i, ii). Therefore there came, as in the Confessions of the Preacher, the great retrilnition. The "sense that wore with time" avenged "the crime of sense." There fell on him, as on other crowned volup- tuaries, the weariness which sees written on all things, Vanity of vanities. Slowly only could he recover from that " vexatiim of spirit," and the recovery was incom- plete. It was not as the strong burst of penitence that brought to his father David the assurance of forgive- ness. He could not rise to the height from which he had fallen, or restore the freshness of his first love. The weary soul could only lay again, with slow and painful relapses, the foundations of a true morality. See Ec- clesiastes.
Here our survey must end. We maj' not enter into the things within the veil, or answer either waj' the doubting question. Is there any hope? Others have not shrunk from debating that question, deciding, ac- cording to their formula, that he did or did not fulfil the conditions of salvation so as to satisfy them, were they to be placed upon the judgment-seat. It would not be profitable to give references to the patristic and other writers who have dealt with this subject. They have been elaborately collected by Calmet {Did. s. v. " Salomon, Nouvelle Dissert, de la Salut du Sal."). It is noticeable and characteristic that Chrvsostom and the theologians of the Greek Church are, for the most part, favorable, Augustine and those of the Latin, for the most part, adverse, to his chances of salvation. (See Petersen, />e Salute Salomonia [Jen. 1(565] ; Keime, Ilar- monia Vitte Salomouis [ibid. 1711J; Ewald, Sulomo [Gera, 1800].)
VI. Ler/emls.— l. The impression made by Solomon on the minds of later generations is shown in its best form by the desire to claim the sanction of his name for even the noblest thoughts of other writers. Possibly in Ecclesiastes, certainly in the Book of Wisdom, we have instances of this, free from the vicious element of an Apocryphal literature. Before long, however, it took other forms, liound the facts of the history, as a nu- cleus, there gathers a whole world of fantastic fables, Jewish, Christian, iMohammedan — refractions, colored and distorted according to the media through which they pass, of a colossal form. Even in the Targum of Ec- clesiastes we find strange stories of his character. He and the rabbins of the Sanhedrim sat and drank wine to- gether in Jabne. His paradise was filled with costly trees which the evil spirits brought him from India. The casuistry of the rabbins rested on his dicta. Ash- medai, the king of the demons, deprived him of his magic ring, and he wandered through the cities of Isra- el weeping, and saying, I, the preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem (Koran, sur. 38; Ginsburg, A'o^f/e^/(, app. i, H). He left behind him spells and charms to cure diseases and cast out evil spirits; and for centuries incantations bearing his name were the special boast of all the "vagabond Jew exorcists" who swarmed in the cities of the emjiire (Josephus, Aiil.v'm,2, 5; Just. Mart. Respons. ad Ortliod. bb , Origon, Comm. in Matt, axri, 3). His wisdom enabled him to interpret the speech of beasts and birds, a gift shared afterwards, it was said, by his descendant Hillel (Koran, sur. 37, Ewald, iii, 407). He knew the secret virtues of gems and herbs (Fabricius, Codex Pseudep. V. T. p. 1042). The name of a well-known plant, .Solomon's-seal (Cf«»v(/A/?7(j mu- jalis), perpetuates the old belief. He was the inventor of the Syriac and .\rabian alphabets {ihid. p. 1014).
2. Arabic imaginaticjii took a yet wilder flight. Af- ter a long struggle with the rebellious Afrits and Jinns, Solomon conquered them and cast them into the sea (Lane, A raliaii Siyhts, i, 36j. The remote pre-Adam-
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ite past was peopleil with a succession of forty Solomons ruling oviT (litlVniit rati's, each with a shield ami sword that gave them sovereij;iity over tlie Jiniis. " To Solo- mon himself heloiif^ed the magic ring wliich revealed to him the past, the |)reseiit, and the future. Because he staved his march at the hour of prayer, instead of riding on with his horsemen, God gave him the winds as a chariot, and the birds llew over him, making a per- |)ctual canopy. The da'inons, in their spite, wrote books of m.igic in his name; but he, being aware of it, seized them and placed them under liis throne, wliere they re- mained till liis dcatli, and then tiie (hemoiis again got hold of them and scattered tliem abroad (Koran, sur. 21 ; U'Herbelot, s. V. ".Soliman lien Daomi"). Tiie visit of the ipicen of Sheba furnislied some three or four ro- mances. The Koran (^sur. 27) narrates her visit, her wonder, her conversion to the Islam, which .Solomon professed. She ai)pears inidi-r three ditVerent names — Xioaule (I'almet, Diet. s. v.), lialkis (D'llerbelot, s. v.), Makeila (Pineda, v, 14). Tiie .Vrabs claim her as be- longing to Yemen; the Ethiopians as coming from Me- roe. In each form of the story a son is born to her, which calls Solomon its father — in the Arab version, Meilekh; in the Ethiopian, Uavid, after his grandfa- ther, the ancestor of a long line of Etliiojiian kings (Lu- AiAi, llUl. .E'hinp.ii.'i-b). Twelve thousand Hebrews accompanied her on her return home, and from them were descended the Jews of Ethiopia, and the great Trestcr .lohii (Presbyter .Joannes) of medi.eval travel- lers (D'llerbelot, loc. cit ; Pineda, loc. cit. ; Corylus, Diss. lie Itfjiiui A iislr. in Menthen's Thegdnrux, vol. i). She brought to Solomon the self-same gifts whicli the Magi afterwards brought to Christ. See Magi. One, at least, of the hard tpiestions with which she came was rescued from oblivion. Fair boys and sturdy girls were dressed up by her exactly alike, so that no eye could distinguish them. The king placed water before them and bade tiiein wash ; and then, when the boys scrubbed their faces and tlie girls stroked them softly, lie made out which were which (Glycas, AumiL in Kabricius, loc. cit.). Versions of these and other legends are to be found also in Weil, Jiihl. Liyeiids, p. 171; Flirst, Pe7-- lemchiiiire, ch. xxxvi.