5 min read

Asmodeus Outwitted Solomon and Briefly Wore His Crown

The king of demons helped build the Temple, then stole Solomon's throne. A fish and a ring undid the greatest heist in the history of heaven.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Problem With Building Without Iron
  2. Wine, a Chain, and a Desert Well
  3. The Journey to Jerusalem and What the Demon Saw
  4. The Moment Asmodeus Got What He Wanted
  5. A Fish and a Ring

The Problem With Building Without Iron

Solomon needed to cut stone without touching it with iron. The Torah's prohibition on iron tools at any altar site extended to the Temple he was building in Jerusalem, the most sacred construction project in Israelite history. Every block, every column, every fitted surface had to be shaped without saws or chisels. What could cut granite without metal? Only the Shamir, a creature or a worm or a stone, depending on the source, that had the property of splitting any hard surface by contact alone. The Shamir had been created at twilight on the sixth day, one of the ten wonders made in the last moments before the first Shabbat. Nobody alive knew where it was kept.

Except Asmodeus, the king of the demons.

Wine, a Chain, and a Desert Well

Solomon sent his general Benaiah son of Jehoiada with three tools: a chain engraved with the divine name, a fleece of wool, and a full goatskin of wine. Benaiah traveled to the desert, found the well where Asmodeus drank each day before ascending to the heavens for his celestial duties, drained the water from the well, plugged the opening with the wool, and filled the cavity with wine.

When Asmodeus descended and found wine where water should have been, he paused. He was king of demons and knew perfectly well what was happening. He quoted Proverbs: wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging. He said: do not look at wine when it is red. He recited every scriptural warning about intoxication. Then he drank every drop.

The wine hit him like a wall. Benaiah waited for him to collapse and then bound him with the divine-name chain. Asmodeus woke up in chains and was taken to Jerusalem.

The Journey to Jerusalem and What the Demon Saw

On the road, Asmodeus behaved strangely. He wept at a wedding. He laughed at a man asking a cobbler to make shoes that would last seven years. He grabbed a blind man who was about to walk off the road and set him gently back on the path. He laughed at a sorcerer holding court. When Benaiah pressed him for explanations, Asmodeus answered each one. The groom at the wedding had less than a month to live. The man ordering seven-year shoes would not survive seven days. The sorcerer conjuring up buried treasure was sitting directly on top of it. Each answer was a small revelation about the nature of demonic knowledge: Asmodeus could see what humans could not, the length of a life, the irony of desire, the gap between what people asked for and what awaited them.

In Jerusalem, Solomon questioned him. Asmodeus revealed the location of the Shamir. With the Shamir, the Temple was built.

The Moment Asmodeus Got What He Wanted

Then Solomon made his mistake. Satisfied with the construction complete, curious about demonic wisdom, he unchained Asmodeus and asked him what a demon could do that a human king could not. Asmodeus asked for Solomon's ring, the ring inscribed with the divine name that gave Solomon authority over the spirit world. Solomon handed it over.

Asmodeus threw the ring into the sea. He grabbed Solomon and flung him four hundred miles to the ends of the earth. Then he sat on Solomon's throne, put on Solomon's appearance, and ruled Israel.

For a period, the exact duration varies in different tellings, no one knew. The demon wore a king's face and no one could see the difference. Solomon wandered through foreign lands, claiming to be the king of Israel, ignored and mocked wherever he went. A man claiming to be a king with no kingdom and no ring looks exactly like a madman. The real king was begging in the streets while the king of demons administered justice in Jerusalem.

A Fish and a Ring

Solomon eventually reached the coast. He hired himself out as a cook at the house of a prominent man in a distant city, and one evening he was given a fish to prepare. When he cut it open, the ring was inside. The fish had swallowed it after Asmodeus threw it into the sea. Solomon put the ring back on his finger, and the demon's grip on his throne collapsed at once. Solomon made his way back to Jerusalem. Asmodeus was gone.

The Tobias tradition, preserved in the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit, carries Asmodeus's story in a different direction. There he appears not as a throne-thief but as a killer, the demon who had killed each of the seven husbands of Sarah daughter of Raguel on their wedding nights. When Tobias arrived as her eighth suitor, he burned the heart and liver of a fish on a brazier, and the smoke drove Asmodeus to the farthest corner of Egypt, where the angel Raphael bound him. In both traditions, the instrument of Asmodeus's undoing is the same: a fish.

DemonsSolomonAngelsWisdomTemple
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The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Legends of the Jews 5:133Legends of the Jews

One of the most fascinating stories revolves around a journey they take together and the shocking revelations Asmodeus makes along the way.

After what must have been an exhausting trip, Asmodeus was finally brought before Solomon himself. The king, naturally, was curious – maybe a little annoyed – about Asmodeus's peculiar behavior during their travels. Why the strange outbursts? What was with the laughter and the tears?

Asmodeus, never one to mince words, explained that he sees the world with a clarity that humans simply lack. He judges people and situations not by their superficial appearances, but by their true essence. It's a perspective that’s both terrifying and, let's be honest, a little bit enviable.

Take the wedding party, for example. Asmodeus wept, not out of sadness for the couple, but because he knew the groom was doomed to die within a month. A grim prophecy, indeed! As we find similar notions in the Book of Tobit.

Then there was the man who wanted shoes guaranteed to last seven years. Asmodeus burst into laughter! Why? Because he foresaw that the man wouldn't even live long enough to wear them for seven days. It's a dark humor, for sure, but it cuts straight to the heart of our human vanities.

And what about the magician? Asmodeus chuckled at his attempts to reveal hidden secrets because, ironically, the magician himself was standing on top of buried treasure without even realizing it! The irony is almost comical.

Asmodeus's explanations weren't always cynical, though. He encountered a blind man and guided him on the right path. Why? Because this man was one of the tzadikim gemurim, the "perfectly pious." Asmodeus wanted to reward his righteousness.

But then he did a similar kindness to a drunkard, leading him as well. Solomon was perplexed. Asmodeus explained that this drunkard, despite being known in Heaven as wicked, had performed one good deed in his life. And even that single act deserved a reward.

It's a powerful reminder that even in the darkest of souls, there can be a spark of light. And maybe, just maybe, someone or something is keeping track of it all. Seeing past the surface, beyond our carefully constructed facades, to the truth of who we really are. What would Asmodeus see when he looked at you?

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Legends of the Jews 5:132Legends of the Jews

Solomon needed help, immense supernatural help, and he knew just where to find it.

The task of capturing Asmodeus fell to Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, Solomon’s most trusted and valiant servant. This wasn't your average "go get the milk" errand. Benaiah was equipped with some rather unusual tools: a chain engraved with the Shem HaMephorash, the explicit Name of God; a ring bearing the same sacred inscription; a bundle of wool; and a skin full of wine. An odd shopping list. Benaiah found Asmodeus’s usual watering hole – a well. Cleverly, he bored a hole from below to drain the water, plugged it with the wool, and then filled the well with wine. Imagine Asmodeus's surprise when he came down from heaven, expecting a refreshing drink of water, only to find… Cabernet Sauvignon?

At first, Asmodeus hesitated. According to Ginzberg’s retelling in Legends of the Jews, he even quoted Bible verses railing against the evils of wine, trying to bolster his resolve. But thirst, as they say, is a powerful thing. He succumbed, drank deeply, and fell into a stupor.

That's when Benaiah sprang into action. Hiding in a tree, he watched until Asmodeus was completely out, then leaped down and chained the demon's neck. When Asmodeus woke and tried to break free, Benaiah simply invoked the power of the Name: "The Name of thy Lord is upon thee!" And just like that, the mighty Asmodeus was subdued.

But the journey back to Solomon was anything but smooth. Asmodeus, though captive, still possessed immense power. He brushed against a palm tree, and it was uprooted. He bumped into a house, and it crumbled. When a poor woman pleaded with Benaiah to steer the demon away from her hut, Asmodeus begrudgingly obeyed but broke one of her bones in the process. "Is it not written," he quipped, with a grim sort of humor, "'A soft tongue breaketh the bone?'" (Proverbs 25:15).

The Zohar paints a vivid picture of demons having a complex, almost paradoxical nature. We see glimpses of this complexity in Asmodeus's actions. He guided a blind man back onto the right path and showed similar kindness to a drunkard. Yet, he wept when he saw a wedding procession pass by and laughed at a man ordering shoes to last seven years and at a magician performing tricks. What are we to make of these strange reactions?

The Talmud (Gittin 68a-b) expands on this, detailing Asmodeus's eventual assistance in building the Temple, revealing secrets of construction known only to demons.

Perhaps his tears at the wedding stemmed from an understanding of the fleeting nature of happiness, or maybe envy at the joy he could never experience. His laughter at the shoemaker and the magician? Perhaps he saw the futility in their long-term plans and shallow deceptions, knowing the grand cosmic scheme in ways humans couldn't.

Asmodeus's story, as we find it in Midrash Rabbah, isn’t just about capturing a demon. It's about the complexities of good and evil, the blurry lines between wisdom and foolishness, and the surprising places where we might find help, even from those we least expect. It also reminds us that even the mightiest can be brought low by simple human desires… like a really good glass of wine.

What do you think? Does this story suggest that even demons have a role to play in the divine plan, or is it simply a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked power?

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Legends of the Jews 5:131Legends of the Jews

It wasn't a sudden plunge, but a slow slide fueled by choices… and a little help from the King of Demons himself.

In Legends of the Jews, Solomon’s troubles began to snowball. while he was building the Temple – that magnificent, awe-inspiring Temple – he ran into a bit of a problem. The Torah is very clear that you can’t use iron tools when you’re building an altar (Exodus 20:25). So how was he supposed to shape the stones from the quarry to fit perfectly?

The scholars reminded him of something fascinating: Moses had used the shamir, a mythical stone with the power to split rocks, to engrave the names of the tribes on the precious stones of the ephod – that ceremonial breastplate worn by the High Priest. The shamir. But where could Solomon find such a thing?

He turned to his demons, as you do when you're a king with supernatural connections. But even they were stumped! They knew of its existence, but not its location. Finally, though, they offered a clue. They suspected that Asmodeus, King of the Demons, held the secret. They even knew where he lived: a specific mountain.

The demons described Asmodeus' peculiar habits. On this mountain, there was a well, Asmodeus’ source of drinking water. Every day, before ascending to heaven – yes, even demons apparently attend heavenly academies to debate Torah – he would seal the well with a large rock. He’d check the seal when he returned, making sure it hadn’t been disturbed before taking a drink. Imagine the life of a demon king!

So, how does this detail about a well and a rock tie into Solomon's downfall? Well, it’s the beginning of a fascinating story involving trickery, ambition, and the subtle ways even the wisest of us can be led astray. We’ll see how Solomon’s quest for the shamir, and his interaction with Asmodeus, would eventually contribute to the heavy price he had to pay for his sins. As we'll find out, sometimes the most seemingly insignificant detail can be the thread that unravels everything.

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Book of Tobit 6:6Book of Tobit

The Book of Tobit, specifically chapter 6, where things get… interesting.

Our hero, Tobiyyah, is on a journey. He’s got an angel – though he doesn't know it yet – guiding him. But Tobiyyah is understandably nervous. He's heard about the woman he's supposed to marry, Sarah. And the rumors? Well, they're terrifying.

Tobiyyah says to the angel, "I have heard, my brother, that she hath already been given to seven husbands, who died before they came in unto her." Can you imagine? Seven husbands, all gone! And the reason, according to the whispers? "Asmodeus, the king of the demons, killed them." Asmodeus. Not exactly the best wingman.

Understandably, Tobiyyah is freaked out. He continues, "Now therefore I am greatly afraid lest Asmodeus kill me, and I bring the old age of my parents in sorrow to the grave, for they have no other son, neither daughter, to bury them when they die." It’s not just his life he’s worried about, but the devastation it would bring to his family. This is a very Jewish concern, isn’t it? Duty to family, honoring parents… it all weighs heavily on him.

But here’s where the angel steps in. And this is where the story gets a little… well, let’s just say it involves fish.

"Fear the Lord, and remember him, and remember the commandments of thy father which he commanded thee, that thou shouldest take a wife of the family of thy father," the angel says. Okay, good, solid advice so far. But then comes the kicker: "Now therefore hear me, and be not afraid of the demon. For I know that thou shalt take her this night to wife."

Easy for the angel to say. Don't be afraid of the demon!

Then comes the truly bizarre part. The angel gives Tobiyyah instructions on how to deal with Asmodeus. "And when thou shalt enter the chamber with her, take the heart of the fish, and smoke thereof under her garments, and the demon shall smell it, and flee, and return to her no more."

Did you catch that? Fish heart smoke. Under her garments. It’s.. specific.

Apparently, Asmodeus has a real aversion to the smell of burning fish heart. Who knew?

But it doesn’t end there. The angel continues, "And when thou shalt desire to approach her, rise ye from the bed, and pray, and supplicate the Lord that he would command his kindness and healing upon you, and heal her." Prayer is key. This isn't just about a magical fish repellent; it's about seeking divine intervention.

Finally, the angel reassures Tobiyyah, "And then thou shalt approach her, and shalt beget of her sons; and fear not, for for thee was she meet before the world was created, and by thine hand the Lord shall save her from the hand of the demon." This is a crucial point: Sarah was meant for him all along. Their union is destined.

So, what are we to make of this strange and wonderful story? Is it a literal account of demon-fighting with fish organs? Or is there something deeper going on?

Perhaps it's a reminder that even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, even demonic ones, faith, prayer, and a little bit of unconventional strategy can prevail. And maybe, just maybe, there's a bit of divine intervention in finding the person you’re meant to be with. Even if it involves a slightly smelly detour.

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Book of Tobit 8:1Book of Tobit

Seems like a happy occasion. But this isn't your typical "happily ever after" beginning. Sarah, poor thing, has been through the wringer. She's been married seven times before, and each husband has tragically died on their wedding night, killed by the demon Asmodeus.

Her mother, Ednah, is understandably distraught. As we read, "Reuel said to Ednah his wife, Prepare the chamber, and put them therein. And Ednah embraced Sarah her daughter, and wept with her, and said to her. My daughter, may the Lord God of Israel shew thee kindness this night, and grant thee mercy, and have pity on thee because of the sorrow which hath passed over thee unto this day.” Can you imagine the dread in that room? The palpable fear?

Tobiyyah, bless his heart, isn't going in blind. He's got a secret weapon, a piece of advice given to him by the angel Raphael in disguise. Remember that fish Tobiyyah caught earlier in the story? Raphael instructed him to keep the heart and liver for just such a moment.

"And it came to pass when they had finished preparing the chamber and the bed, that Tobiyyah and Sarah arose and went to the chamber. And Tobiyyah remembered the words of Raphael, and took the heart of the fish, and put it upon the pan, and smoked under Sarah’s garments."

Yes, you read that right. He burns the fish heart on some incense. It sounds a little…unorthodox, doesn't it? But in the world of Tobit, faith and a bit of folk magic go hand in hand. Think of it as an ancient Jewish air freshener with a serious kick!

And what happens? the verse says: "And Asmodeus received the smell, and went out thereat, and fled to the end of the land of Egypt, and the angel Raphael bound him there. And he went out of the chamber and they shut the door on them twain.”

Poof! Asmodeus is gone, banished to Egypt, and bound by Raphael. Just like that.

It’s interesting, isn't it? This rather…unusual ritual is what ultimately defeats the demon. What does it say about faith, about taking action, even if that action seems strange or unconventional? Perhaps it's the intention behind the act, Tobiyyah's unwavering belief in Raphael's words and his determination to protect Sarah, that truly makes the difference.

So, the young couple are finally alone, and this time, they're safe. The door is shut, not with dread, but with hope. But what happens next? We'll have to wait until next time to find out.

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