The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

Solomon 241
Moses upon which are written the Ten Commandments,
underneath the wings of the cherubim.
Solomon has another vision, in which the Lord promises
that his house will prosper as long as the commandments
are kept and no other gods are worshipped. If there
are any transgressions, God will cause the ruination to
the kingdom.
For most of the 40 years of his reign, Solomon prospers:
“Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of earth
in riches and in wisdom. And the whole earth sought the
presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had
put into his mind” (10:23–24). He rules over the natural
world as well as people.
By his later years, he has acquired 700 wives and 300
concubines. Some of his wives convince him to turn away
from God and worship pagan deities, especially the goddess
Ashtoreth. Angry, God sends adversaries against
him. In the end, God decides not to wrest his kingdom
away from Solomon but instead to take it away from all
but one of his sons.
One day, Solomon went to a person described as
“the Jebusite” and fell in love with his daughter, who
is called the Shulamite (Soumanitis). The priests of
MOLOCH, however, said, “Thou canst not have her to
wife except thou worship the great gods Remphan and
Moloch.” Solomon refused, but they gave him five locusts
and said, “Crush these upon the altar of Moloch,
and it will suffice.”
Solomon said, “And so I did, and immediately the
Spirit of God departed from me . . . and I became a laughingstock
unto the idols and to the demons. Therefore have
I written this my Testament that ye which come on it may
pray and take heed to your latter end and not to your beginning,
that ye may find grace perfectly for ever.”
Other texts expand upon Solomon’s wisdom; he becomes
the greatest of magicians, a ruler over the realm
of nature, able to summon angels and command demons.
Such details are found in the Testament of Solomon,
Odes of Solomon, and Psalms of Solomon, all part of the
pseudepigrapha, and in the Wisdom of Solomon, part of
the apochrypha. Josephus’ Antiquities credits Solomon
with writing 1,500 books of odes and songs and 3,000
books of parables and similitudes and knowing how to
exorcize demons. The Sefer Raziel, a magical text, says
that Solomon was heir to the famed book (also called the
Book of Mysteries), which enabled him to become the
source of all wisdom.
From the time of Origen, Solomon becomes more
prominent in Christian lore than in Jewish lore, appearing
on AMULETs, talismans, and lintels and in numerous
incantations for protection against and removal of demons.
His magical seal is a pentagram or hexagram.
In Islamic lore, Solomon becomes the greatest of world
rulers, a true apostle and messenger of Allah, and the
prototype of Muhammad. His magical powers against demons,
the djinn, are famous. Solomon acquired his power
over the djinn by asking for “soverignity not allowed to
anyone after me” (sura 38:35). Allah responds by granting
him unique power: “Then We subjected the wind to his
power, to flow gently by his order wherever he wished, and
also the evil Jinns, every builder and diver as well as those
bound together in chains” (sura 38:36–38). Solomon alone
was given the power to bind the djinn; however, much
later, the prophet Muhammad repelled IBLIS by invoking
Solomon’s prayer request for sovereignty (see EXORCISM).
According to tradition, after Solomon died, the djinn
wrote books of magic filled with acts of disbelief, or disinformation,
and put them under his chair. When the
books were discovered, the djinn claimed that Solomon
had used the magic in them to control the djinn. As a
result, Solomon was discredited by some Christians and
Jews. Others took the books and began practicing the
magic. Both groups erred, according to scholars, one by
practicing magic, which earns no happiness in the afterlife,
and the other by discrediting Solomon, whose power
was directly from Allah. The Qur’an says:
When a messenger from Allah came to them conforming
what was revealed to them, a group of those given
the scripture cast the book behind their backs as if they
did not know about it. They followed what the devils
claimed about Sulaymaan’s dominion. However, Sulaymaan
did not disbelieve, but the devils did by teaching
men magic and what was revealed to the two angels
Haaroot and Maaroot in Babylon. Though neither of
them taught anyone without first saying, “We are only
a trial, so do not commit disbelief,” they learned from
them means to separate a man from his wife. But, they
could not harm anyone with it except by Allah’s will.
They learned what would harm themselves and not what
would benefit them, though they knew that the buyers
of (magic) would have no share in the happiness in the
next life. They sold their souls for an evil price if they
only knew. (Sura 2:101–102)
Despite the warnings of Islam, the allure of Solomonic
magic proved irresistible. Numerous magical handbooks,
or GRIMOIRES, attributed to the authorship of Solomon
were popular in the early centuries of Christianity. By the
12th century, at least 49 texts were in existence. The most
famous was the Greater Key of Solomon, quoted often in
the magical books of the 17th–19th centuries.
Testament of Solomon
The Testament of Solomon, a text in the pseudepigrapha
probably written between the first and third centuries
C.E., is a legendary tale about how Solomon built the
Temple of Jerusalem by commanding demons. The text is
rich in demonology, angelology, and lore about medicine,
astrology, and MAGIC. The author is unknown and may
have been a Greek-speaking Christian who was familiar
with the Babylonian Talmud. The magical lore related to
demons, which dominates the text, shows Babylonian
influences.