Solomon
The connection of Solomon, son of David, the King of Israel, with magical practice, although it does not possess any Biblical authority, has yet a very considerable body of oriental tradition behind it. It is supposed, however, that the Jewish Solomon has in many cases been confounded with a still older and mythical figure. Then the Arabs and Persians have legends of a prehistoric race who were ruled by seventy-two monarchs of the name of Suleiman, of whom the last reigned one thousand years. "It does not seem," says Yarker, "that these Suleimans who are par excellence the rulers of all Djinn, Afreets and other elemental spirits, bear any relationship to the Israelite King." The name, he says, is found in that of a god of the Babylonians and the late Dr. Kenealy, the translater of Hafiz, says that the earliest Aryan teachers were named Mohn, Bodles or Solymi, and that Suleiman was an ancient title of royal power, synonymous with 66
Sultan " or "Pharaoh." A Persian legend states that in the mountains of Kaf, which can only be reached by the magic ring of Solomon, there is a gallery built by the giant Arzeak, where one kept the statues of a race who were ruled by the Suleiman or wise Kings of the East. There is a great chair or throne of Solomon hewn out of the solid rock, on the confines of the Afghanistan and India called the Takht-i-Suleiman or throne of Solomon, its ancient Aryan name being Shanker Acharga. It is to these older Suleiman's then, that we must probably look for a connection with the tradition of occultism, and it is not unlikely that the legend relating to Solomon and his temple have been confused with these, and that the protagonists of the antiquity of Freemasonry, who date their cult from the building of Solomon's Temple, have confounded some still older rite or mystery relating to the ancient dynasty of Suleiman with the circumstances of the masonic activities of the Hebrew monarch. "God," says Josephus, "enabled Solomon to learn that skill which expels dæmons, which is a science useful and sanative to men. He composed such incantations, also, by which distempers are alleviated, and he left behind him the manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away dæmons, so that they never return. And this method of cure is of great force unto this day; for I have seen a certain man of my own country, whose name was Eleazar, releasing people that were dæmoniacal, in the presence of Vespasian and his sons, and his captains, and the whole multitude of his soldiers. The manner of the cure was this. He put a ring that had a root of one of these sorts mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils; and when the man fell down immediately, he adjured him to return unto him no more, making still mention of Solomon, and reciting the incantations which he composed. And when Eleazar would persuade and demonstrate to the spectators that he had such a power, he set, a little way off, a cup, or basin full of water, and commanded the dæmon as he went out of the man, to overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators know that he had left the man." Some pretended fragments of these conjuring books of Solomon are noticed in the "Codex Pseudepigraphus" of Fabricius, and Josephus himself has described one of the antidæmoniacal roots, which must remind the reader of the perils attendant on gathering the " mandrake."
The Koran alleges that Solomon had power over the winds, and that he rode on his throne throughout the world during the day, and the wind brought it back every night to Jerusalem. This throne was placed on a carpet of green silk, of a prodigious, length and breadth, and sufficient to afford standing-room to all Solomon's army, the men on his right hand and the Jinn on his left. An army of the most beatiful birds hovered near the throne, forming a kind of canopy over it, and the attendants, to screen the king and his soldiers from the sun. A certain number of evil spirits were also made subject to him, whose business it was to dive for pearls, and perform other work. We are also informed, on the same authority, that the devils, having received permission to tempt Solomon, in which they were not successful, conspired to ruin his character. They wrote several books of magic, and hid them under his throne; and when he died they told the chief men among the Jews that if they wished to ascertain the manner in which Solomon obtained his absolute power over men, Genii, and the winds, they should dig under his throne. They did so and found the books, abounding with the most impious superstitions. The more learned and enlightened refused to participate in the practices described in those books, but they were willingly adopted by the common people. The Mahomedans assert that the Jewish priests published this scandalous story concerning Solomon, which was believed till Mahomet, by God's command, declared him to have been no idolater.
Solomon, it is further maintained by the Mahomedans, brought a thousand horses from Damascus and other cities he conquered, though some say they were left to him by his father David, who seized them from the Amalekites; and others pretend that they came out of the Red Sea, and were provided with wings. The King wished to inspect his horses, and ordered them to be paraded before him; and their symmetry and beauty so much occupied his attention that he gazed on them after sunset, and thus neglected evening prayers till it was too late. When sensible of his omission, he was so greatly concerned at it that he ordered all the horses to be killed as an offering to God, except a hundred of the best of them. This, we are informed, procured for him an ample recompense, as he received for the loss of his horses dominion over the winds.
The following tradition is narrated by the Mahomedan commentators relative to the building of the temple of Jerusalem. According to them, David laid the foundations of it, and when he died he left it to be finished by Solomon. That prince employed Jinn, and not men, in the work; and this idea might probably originate from what is said in the First Book of Kings (vi., 7) that the Temple was " built of stone, made ready before it was brought thither, so that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house while it was building"; and the Rabbins notice a worm which, they pretend, assisted the workmen, the power of which was such as to cause the rocks and stones to separate in chiselled blocks. Solomon, while engaged in the erection of the Temple, found his end approaching, and he prayed that his death might be concealed from the Jinn till the building was finished. His request was granted. He died while in the act of praying, and leaning on his staff, which supported his body in that posture for a whole year, and the Jinn, who supposed him to be still alive, continued their work. At the expiration of the year the edifice was completed, when a worm which had entered the staff, ate it through, and to the amazement even of the Jinn the body fell to the ground, and the King was discovered to be dead.
The inhabitants of the valley of Lebanon believe that the celebrated city and temple of Baalbec were erected by the Jinn under Solomon's direction. The object of the erection of Baalbec is variously stated, one tradition affirming that it was intended to be a residence for the Egyptian princess whom Solomon married, and another that it was built for the Queen of Sheba.
Solomon Ibn Gabirol (1021-1058): Spanish-Hebrew poet and mystic philosopher. He was a Neoplatonist, but at the same time subscribed to the mystical doctrine which states that the Deity can only be regarded as a negation of all attributes. This he considered essential to the preservation of the Jewish monotheism. Sortilege Solomon, Mirror of: The method of making the Mirror of Solomon, which is used for purposes of divination, is as follows: Take a shining and well-polished plate of fine steel, slightly concave, and with the blood of a white pigeon inscribe at the four corners the names-Jehovah, Eloym, Metatron, Adonay. Place the mirror in a clean and white cloth, and when you behold a new moon during the first hour after sunset, repeat a prayer that the angel Anaël may command and ordain his companions to act as they are instructed; that is, to assist the operator in divining from the mirror. Then cast upon burning coals a suitable perfume, at the same time uttering a prayer. Repeat this thrice, then breathe upon the mirror and evoke the angel Anaël. The sign of the cross is then made upon the operator and upon the mirror for forty-five days in succession-at the end of which period Anaël appears in the form of a beautiful child to accomplish the operator's wishes. Sometimes he appears on the fourteenth day, according to the devotion and fervour of the operator. The perfume used in evoking him is saffron.