"With larger other eyes than ours To make allowance for us all."
Orcagna was wiser when, in his great picture in the Campo Santo at Pisa and in the Strozzi Chapel at Florence, he represented Solomon rising out of his sepulchre in robe and crown at the trump of the archangel, uncertain whether he is to turn to the right hand or to the left.
And Dante, as all men know, joins Solomon in Paradise with the Four Great Schoolmen. The great mediæval poet of Latin Christianity did not side with St. Augustine and the Latin Fathers against the wise king, but with St. Chrysostom and the Greek Fathers for him. He did so because he accepted St. Bernard's mystical interpretation of the Song of Songs:--
"La quinta luce, ch'è tra noi più bella Spira di tale amor, che tutto il mondo Laggiù ne gola di saver novella. Entro v'è l'alta mente, u' sì profondo Saver fu messo, che si il vero è vero, A veder tanto non surse il secondo."[439]
There is a famous legend in the Qur'an about the death of Solomon.[440]
"Work ye righteousness O ye family of David; for I see that which ye do. And we made the wind subject unto Solomon.... And we made a fountain of molten brass to flow for him. And some of the genii were obliged to work in his presence by the will of his Lord. They made for him whatever he pleased of palaces, and statues, and large dishes like fishponds, and caldrons standing firm on their trivets; and we said, Work righteousness, O family of David, with thanksgiving; for few of my servants are thankful. And when we had decreed that Solomon should die, nothing discovered his death unto them, except the creeping thing of the earth that gnawed his staff. And when his body fell down, the genii plainly perceived that if they had known that which is secret they had not continued in a vile punishment."[441]
The legend briefly alluded to was that Solomon employed the genii to build his Temple, but, foreseeing that he would die before its completion, he prayed God to conceal his death from them, so that they might go on working. His prayer was heard, and the rest of the legend may best be told in the words of a poet:[442]--
"King Solomon stood in his crown of gold, Between the pillars, before the altar In the House of the Lord. And the king was old, And his strength began to falter, So that he leaned on his ebony staff, Sealed with the seal of the Pentegraph.
* * * * *
And the king stood still as a carven king, The carven cedar beams below, In his purple robe, with his signet-ring, And his beard as white as snow. And his face to the Oracle, where the hymn Dies under the wings of the cherubim.
* * * * *
And it came to pass as the king stood there, And looked on the House he had built with pride, That the hand of the Lord came unaware And touched him, so that he died In his purple robe and his signet ring And the crown wherewith they had crowned him king.
And the stream of folk that came and went To worship the Lord with prayer and praise, Went softly ever in wonderment, For the king stood there always; And it was solemn and strange to behold The dead king crowned with a crown of gold.
* * * * *
So King Solomon stood up dead in the House Of the Lord, held there by the Pentegraph, Until out from the pillar there ran a red mouse, And gnawed through his ebony staff; Then flat on his face the king fell down, And they picked from the dust a golden crown."
The legends of the East describe Solomon as tormented indeed, yet not without hope. In the romance of Vathek he is described as listening earnestly to the roar of a cataract, because when it ceases to roar his anguish will be at an end.