Having once acquired a power over Ashmedai, Solomon detained him till the building of the Temple was completed. One day after this, when they were alone, it is related that Solomon, adressing him, asked him, "What, pray, is your superiority over us, if it be true, as it is written (Num. xxiii. 22), (He has the strength of a unicorn,* and the word strength,1 as tradition alleges, means < ministering angels,* and the word ( unicorn" means ( devils *?** Ashmedai replied, " Just take this chain from my neck, and give me thy signetring, and I'll soon show thee my superiority.8 No sooner did Solomon comply with this request, than Ashmedai, snatching him up, swallowed him; then stretching forth his wings — one touching the heaven and the other the earth — he vomited him out again to a distance of four hundred miles.
It is with reference to this time that Solomon says (Eccl. i. 3; ii. 10), "What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun? This is my portion of all my labor.8 What does the word this mean? Upon this point Rav and Samuel are at variance, for the one says it means his staff, the other holds that it means his garment or water-jug; and that with one or other Solomon went about from door to door begging; and wherever he came he said (Eccl. i. 12), "I, the preacher, was king over Israel in Jerualem.8 When in his wanderings he came to the house of the Sanhedrin, the Rabbis reasoned and said, if he were mad he would