During the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem, King Solomon kept Asmodeus, the king of demons, as his prisoner, to prevent any of the forces of evil, which Asmodeus commanded, from interfering with the building of the Temple. When the Temple was completed, King Solomon called in Asmodeus, and told him that he was prepared to set him free if Asmodeus would first reveal a single secret to him. Asmodeus said: Tell me first, O king, what secret it is that you want to know. Solomon said: Of a great many mysteries am I master, Asmodeus, of the language of the birds, of the secrets of the wind, and of the mysteries of the Ineffable Name. But there is one secret that has eluded me so far—that is the secret of Illusion.
And it is of great importance that I learn this secret, for as king I often am called upon to distinguish truth from illusion. Asmodeus nodded when he heard these words from King Solomon, and he said: I agree, King Solomon, to reveal this secret to you. But I cannot do so while I stand here in these chains, nor unless you surrender the ring you wear, inscribed with the Ineffable Name. For in the presence of the Name my lips are sealed. When Solomon heard this, he found the words of Asmodeus plausible, and for the sake of learning the secret he had Asmodeus released from his chains, and surrendered his ring to him. But no sooner was Asmodeus free and in possession of the ring than he flung it a great distance, so that it was soon lost on the horizon, and sank into the sea. Then the king of demons approached King Solomon, who stood before him unprotected, and setting one of his vast wings into the heavens, and the other into the earth, he picked Solomon up from where he sat on his throne, and hurled him hundreds of miles.
Now Solomon flew through the air like an arrow, and at last fell down in a field in a foreign country. When he stood up he was like a drunken man who has lost his way, who does not know where he is going or what he is doing. He wandered this way for a long time, until he became thirsty, and at last he came to a pool. But when he bent down to drink and saw his reflection in the water, it was not the reflection of a great king he saw, but that of a miserable beggar. For the light that had lit up his face had vanished, and there was no longer a crown upon his head.
Overwhelmed with the vastness of his loss, Solomon lay down in sorrow and slept. And while he slept he dreamed that the evening star, the first to be seen, the very ruler of the heavens at night, fell from its place and sank like a meteor into the sea.
When Solomon awoke from this dream he trembled, for he recognized its meaning. And in the morning he set off on his wanderings, which lasted for many years.
So it was that, deprived of his kingdom, King Solomon made his way begging for his daily bread. At first, it is true, he insisted he was a king everywhere he went. But those who saw him in his rags paid no attention, and believed him to be merely another beggar gone mad. Then, after three years of wandering, Solomon reached the kingdom ruled by King Ammon. One day, while he stood in the streets of the capital city, the royal cook passed by him, bearing baskets laden with food of all kinds. The beggar king offered to help carry these baskets, and in this way he found favor with the royal cook. For many weeks after that Solomon worked as a laborer in the king's kitchen, until one day he pleaded with the cook, who had become his friend, to let him prepare the royal meal. The royal cook granted his wish, and Solomon prepared a sumptuous feast. When King Ammon tasted this food, he summoned the royal cook and said: Who was it who cooked this food? For never before have you brought me food so exquisite. Then the cook admitted that the meal had been prepared by Solomon, and thereupon the king ordered that Solomon alone should prepare his meals.
As the head royal cook, Solomon soon came to the attention of Naamah, the daughter of the king. And before long Naamah recognized that she loved Solomon, and wanted him for her husband.
Solomon, too, fell in love with the princess, and at last a day came when she announced to her father that she wished them to be wed. But when King Ammon heard this he was consumed with anger that his daughter, the princess, should choose a cook for her husband, when princes from all over the world were at her feet. And in his anger he commanded that the couple should be taken to a desert, and left there to die.
So it happened that Solomon and Naamah found themselves alone in a vast wilderness. They had no supplies of food or water, and the sun overhead was like a fire burning on their bodies.
All they possessed were the clothes on their backs and the walking stick that Solomon carried with him. But it occurred to Solomon that this staff might serve as a divining rod, and by using it in this way he found an underground stream, which flowed beneath the sand. There he dug a well, which the clear waters of the stream filled with fresh water, and it was there that Solomon and Naamah made their home. With the fruit they found, they sustained themselves, and with the stones they gathered Solomon built a stone hut in that place, and digging furrows into the earth he used the waters of the stream to fertilize the land. There Solomon planted every species of fruit which was to be found scattered throughout the wilderness, including every variety of cactus which bore fruit.
So it was that over a period of years, Solomon and his wife established a home in that desert, and turned it into an oasis.
Together they were the parents of three children, two boys and a girl, whom they brought up there. In time Solomon forgot about his life as a king, and came to think of himself as one who made his home in the desert. Nor did he miss his former life, for his days were full, and his nights were peaceful, while as king he had passed many sleepless nights trying to reach just decisions.
In this way many years passed, twelve in all.
Then one day it happened that from out of nowhere a dark cloud covered the desert as far as they could see in every direction, and the rains poured down in great sheets. In a short time a great wave was rolling through the desert, and when this wave struck Solomon's hut it tore it to pieces, and carried off Solomon's wife at the same time. Solomon fought off the waves, with one child held in his left arm, and the other two in his right. A moment later another wave struck them, and at that moment the child in his left arm was torn away from his grasp. Solomon reached for that child, and in this way he lost his grip on the other two, so that all three children were lost at the same time.
Then the world went dark around him, and he was carried a great distance by the currents.
When Solomon awoke he found that his arms were chained.
Looking up, he discovered that he had been captured by thieves, who had found him unconscious after the flood. The thieves took Solomon with them, to sell as a slave, but Solomon did not care that this was his fate. He was filled with grief at the loss of his family. So it was that Solomon was sold as a slave to a caravan, which brought him across the burning desert, and finally sold him as a slave to a blacksmith in a foreign kingdom.
As the slave of a blacksmith, it was the duty of Solomon to work the bellows, so that the fire would continue to burn, and since Solomon was a steady worker, the blacksmith soon came to trust and respect him. Now this blacksmith had a son who wished to become a goldsmith, and who was already quite accomplished at this craft. It happened that among Solomon's many skills he was a highly accomplished goldsmith, and in his free time he taught the son of the blacksmith, whose skills grew so considerable he was able to take a position in the court of the king.
Once, when the young goldsmith was visiting his father, he spoke to Solomon, who begged him to let him fashion a treasure for the king. The son agreed, and in this way Solomon came to fashion a golden dove, set with rubies, moonstones, emeralds, turquoise, mother-of-pearl, and diamonds. In the beak of the dove he placed a golden twig, and from the twig he hung three golden bells like buds. Now when the goldsmith presented this treasure to the king, he was overwhelmed with its magnificence and the great skill of its creator. He asked the goldsmith how it happened that this treasure was so superior to anything he had previously created. Then the goldsmith confessed that it had been created by a slave who worked for his father, the blacksmith.
So it was that the king ordered Solomon to be purchased from the blacksmith, and made chief goldsmith in his palace.
In this way Solomon came to the attention of the king, who recognized that he possessed great wisdom. Little by little, the king came to Solomon to discuss the affairs of his kingdom, and to seek his advice in matters great and small. Now it happened at that time that the king's daughter was possessed by a dream that haunted her night after night. In this dream she saw a man climbing into a cave high in a cliff that faced a cove shaped like a half moon. She never saw the face of the climber but, as often happens in dreams, her eyes were able to see him as he entered the cave, and she watched him take out of a crevice in the wall a jewel of immense beauty, illumined from within, as if by a flame.
Now the princess became possessed by the idea that she must somehow make that jewel her own, and while she pined away over it, her health declined, and she refused to leave her chamber in the palace. At last there came a night when she was able to glimpse the face of the man who climbed up the cliff in the recurring dream, and the face she saw was that of Solomon.
When the princess reported this dream to her father, the king, he understood at once that he must ask his wise goldsmith, Solomon, to set off on a quest to find that cave, and to bring back the jewel his daughter craved so terribly. Nor did Solomon hesitate to undertake this task, but set out at once. And how did he proceed? He remembered that the cove in the dream of the princess had been shaped like a half moon. It was there that she had envisioned the cliff, with the cave in its side, which he must seek out.
So it was that Solomon journeyed for many years, and at each place he came to he asked if there was a cove shaped like a half moon, but nowhere had anyone heard of such a place. Then one day Solomon heard a child call out to another in the street:
Let us go to the cove of the half moon. Now when Solomon heard these words he could hardly believe his luck, and he went to the child and asked him if he knew the way to such a cove.
The boy told him that he did, and he led Solomon to that place.
When they reached the crescent-shaped cove, and Solomon saw the cliff and the cave in its side, he was delighted, and he gave the child a piece of silver and then set off to climb the cliff.
It took him over an hour to reach the cave, high up the cliff, and when he crawled inside he was worn out. Still, he searched through every crevice in the cave, but he could not find anything resembling the jewel in the dream of the princess. All he found was a rough rock in one crevice, and there was nothing to distinguish that rock from any other. But since there was no other clue, Solomon struck the rock against the wall of the cave, and it broke in two. At that instant a beautiful, glowing jewel fell from inside the rock, and Solomon knew his quest was complete. Putting the jewel in a pouch that was strapped to his body, he lay down in the cave and fell asleep.
So tired was Solomon from his efforts that he slept for several hours. When he woke up he found that the cave was no longer lit from the light outside, for the sky had grown dark. Then Solomon went to the entrance of the cave, and when he looked down he saw that the tide had come in, and that the waters had risen, and lapped near the entrance of the cave. Just then another wave came in and started to flood the cave, and Solomon realized he was in great danger of drowning. He clung to a rock as the next wave washed in, and as it started to recede he threw himself from the entrance of the cave into the waters, and in this way he was carried a great distance.
When the wave at last set Solomon down, he saw that it had returned him to the kingdom from which he had set out on the quest for the glowing jewel. With great joy and relief, Solomon hurried to the palace of the king, and presented the jewel and reported all that had happened on his quest. And when the princess saw the jewel of her dreams her sadness turned to joy, and her recovery was swift and complete.
Now the king of that kingdom was so grateful to Solomon for making possible the recovery of the princess that he told him he could have whatever he wanted. Solomon then told him, for the first time, his true history, and the fact that he himself was once a great king. So it was that Solomon asked only for his freedom, in order to recover his kingdom. The king granted his wish at once, and ordered a ship to be made ready and well stocked for the voyage.
That night there was a great feast and many happy toasts were offered. Solomon's ship was launched the next day, and he left to search for his lost kingdom. To occupy himself on the long voyage, Solomon decided that he would take up fishing.
And the first time he cast his rod into the water, he found at the end of the line a magnificent golden fish, unlike any he had ever seen. Solomon was so delighted with this fish that he decided he would not entrust it to the ship's cook; rather, he would prepare it himself. But when Solomon cut the fish open, he was astonished to find in its belly his own magic ring, engraved with the Ineffable Name, which Asmodeus had cast into the sea. Solomon rejoiced to recover the ring, and placed it on his finger, and in an instant he found himself seated on his throne in Jerusalem, with the demon Asmodeus standing before him. And Asmodeus said:
We have been waiting for you for almost an hour, O king. Tell me, now, have you learned something of the secret of Illusion? Solomon was staggered to learn that he had been absent only such a short time. It had seemed like many years to him.
But when he asked his ministers, they confirmed that barely an hour had passed since his departure. Then Solomon commanded from his throne that Asmodeus be set free, since he had fulfilled Solomon's request. And no sooner did Solomon say this than Asmodeus flew away, and he was not seen again in that kingdom during the rest of King Solomon's reign, in which Solomon demonstrated a wisdom unmatched among men, and an evenhanded mercy that was remarked upon by all.