And I said to her: "Under what star dost thou pass?" And she answered me: "Under the star of the full moon, for the reason that the moon travels over most things." Then I said to her: "And
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what angel is it that frustrates thee?" And she said to me: "He that in thee [or "through thee"] is reigning." And I thought that she mocked me, and bade a soldier strike her. But she cried aloud, and said: "I am [subjected] to thee, O king, by the wisdom of God given to thee, and by the angel Joel."22
22. [Instead of "and by the angel Joel." D reads "So I uttered the name of the Holy One of Israel and..."]
So I commanded her to spin the hemp for the ropes used in the building of the house of God; and accordingly, when I had sealed and bound her, she was so overcome and brought to naught as to stand night and day spinning the hemp.
And I at once bade another demon to be led unto me; and instantly there approached me the demon Asmodeus23, bound, and I asked him: "Who art thou?" But he shot on me a glance of anger and rage, and said: "And who art thou?" And I said to him: "Thus punished as thou art, answerest thou me?" But he, with rage, said to me: "But how shall I answer thee, for thou art a son of man; whereas I was born an angel's seed by a daughter of man, so that no word of our heavenly kind addressed to the earth-born can be overweening24. Wherefore also my star is bright in heaven, and men call it, some the Wain25, and some the dragon's child. I keep near unto this star. So ask me not many things; for thy kingdom also after a little time is to be disrupted, and thy glory is but for a season. And short will be thy tyranny over us; and then we shall again have free range over mankind, so as that they shall revere us as if we were gods, not knowing, men that they are, the names of the angels set over us."
23. [Asmodeus also appears in Tobit 3:8, and is ultimately derived from the Avestan demon Aeshma-daeva ("demon of wrath"). -JHP]
24. [arrogant.]
25. [D: Great Bear.]
And I Solomon, on hearing this, bound him more carefully, and ordered him to be flogged with thongs of ox-hide26, and to tell me humbly what was his name and what his business. And he answered me thus: "I am called Asmodeus among mortals, and my business is to plot against the newly wedded, so that they may not know one another. And I sever them utterly by many calamities, and I waste away the beauty of virgin women, and estrange their hearts."
26. [D: flogged with a rod]
And I said to him: "Is this thy only business?" And he answered me: "I transport men into fits of madness and desire, when they have wives of their own, so that they leave them, and go off by
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night and day to others that belong to other men; with the result that they commit sin, and fall into murderous deeds.27"
27. [D: I spread (or, I *sting to?) madness about women through the stars, and I have often committed a rash of murders.]
And I adjured him by the name of the Lord Sabaôth, saying: "Fear God, Asmodeus, and tell me by what angel thou art frustrated." But he said: "By Raphael, the archangel that stands before the throne of God. But the liver and gall of a fish put me to flight, when smoked over ashes of the tamarisk28." I again asked him, and said: "Hide not aught from me. For I am Solomon, son of David, King of Israel. Tell me the name of the fish which thou reverest." And he answered: "It is the Glanos29 by name, and is found in the rivers of Assyria; wherefore it is that I roam about in those parts."
28. [D: smoking on coals of charcoal. Compare Tobit, where Raphael instructs him in the use of the gall, heart, and liver for various cures.]
29. [D: "sheatfish", a large catfish. Gk. ho, hê glanis.]
And I said to him: "Hast thou nothing else about thee, Asmodeus?" And he answered: "The power of God knoweth, which hath bound me with the indissoluble bonds of yonder one's seal, that whatever I have told thee is true. I pray thee, King Solomon, condemn me not to [go into] water." But I smiled, and said to him: "As the Lord God of my fathers liveth, I will lay iron on thee to wear. But thou shalt also make the clay for the entire construction of the Temple, treading it down with thy feet." And I ordered them to give him ten water-jars to carry water in. And the demon groaned terribly, and did the work I ordered him to do. And this I did, because that fierce demon Asmodeus knew even the future. And I Solomon glorified God, who gave wisdom to me Solomon his servant. And the liver of the fish and its gall I hung on the spike of a reed30, and burned it over Asmodeus because of his being so strong, and his unbearable malice was thus frustrated.
30. [D: liver and gall of the fish, along with a branch of storax.]
And I summoned again to stand before me Beelzeboul, the prince of demons, and I sat him down on a raised seat of honour, and said to him: "Why art thou alone, prince of the demons?" And he said to me: "Because I alone am left of the angels of heaven that came down32. For I was first angel in the first heaven being entitled Beelzeboul. And now I control all those who are bound in Tartarus. But I too have a child33, and he haunts the Red Sea. And on any suitable occasion he comes up to me again, being subject to me; and reveals to me what he has done, and I support him.34
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31. [D omits "on a raised seat of honour"]
32. [i.e. fell]
33. [D: There also accompanied me another ungodly (angel)]
34. [D: when he is ready, he will come in triumph.]
I Solomon said unto him: "Beelzeboul, what is thy employment?" And he answered me: "I destroy kings.35 I ally myself with foreign tyrants. And my own demons I set on36 to men, in order that the latter may believe in them and be lost. And the chosen servants of God, priests and faithful men, I excite unto desires for wicked sins, and evil heresies, and lawless deeds; and they obey me, and I bear them on to destruction. And I inspire men with envy, and [desire for] murder, and for wars and sodomy, and other evil things. And I will destroy the world."37
35. [D: I bring destruction by means of tyrants]
36. [D: to be worshipped]
37. [So MS P. D reads simply "I bring about jealousies and murders in a country, and I instigate wars."]
So I said to him: "Bring to me thy child, who is, as thou sayest, in the Red Sea." But he said to me: "I will not bring him to thee. But there shall come to me another demon called Ephippas38. Him will I bind, and he will bring him up from the deep unto me." And I said to him: "How comes thy son to be in the depth of the sea, and what is his name? "And he answered me: "Ask me not, for thou canst not learn from me. However, he will come to thee by any command, and will tell thee openly."39
38. [According to D, Ephippas is an Arabian wind demon.]
39. [D adds: So I said to him, "Tell me in which star you reside." "The one called by men the Evening Star."]
I said to him: "Tell me by what angel thou art frustrated." And he answered: "By the holy and precious name of the Almighty God, called by the Hebrews by a row of numbers, of which the sum is 644, and among the Greeks it is Emmanuel1. And if one of the Romans adjure me by the great name of the power Eleéth, I disappear at once."
1. The text must be faulty, for the word Emmanuel is the Hebrew. The sum 644 is got by adding together the Greek numbers.
I Solomon was astounded when I heard this; and I ordered him to saw up Theban1 marbles. And when he began to saw the marbles, the other demons cried out with a loud voice, howling because of their king Beelzeboul.
1. We hear of Pentelic marble in Strabo, but the reference in the text may be to Thebes in Egypt.