5 min read

Solomon Bound Demons and Put Them to Work on the Temple

A demon was draining the life of a child on Solomon's Temple site. Solomon got a ring from the archangel Michael and built his entire workforce from it.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Child Who Was Wasting Away
  2. The Ring from Michael
  3. What Beelzeboul Revealed
  4. What Beelzeboul Told Him About the Sky
  5. The Thirty-Sixth Demon and the End of the Work

The Child Who Was Wasting Away

Every evening, after the workers finished their shifts on the Temple in Jerusalem, a spirit called Ornias descended on the boy who served the master craftsman. It stole half his wages. Half his food. Then it pressed its thumb against the child's right hand and drained his life force until the boy was wasting away to skin and bone.

Solomon loved this particular boy more than all the other artisans on the site. He had doubled the wages, doubled the portions. The wasting continued. Finally the child confessed what was happening to him each evening after dark, and Solomon, who had been given wisdom to understand the nature of every creature, understood immediately what kind of problem this was and that it could not be solved with human means.

The Ring from Michael

Solomon prayed. The archangel Michael came down with a small ring, a seal engraved in a specific configuration that gave the holder authority over demons. Solomon pressed the ring against the thumb of the same boy the demon had been attacking, and the next evening when Ornias descended and reached for the child's hand, the seal transferred. The demon was bound.

Solomon pressed the seal against Ornias directly. Ornias could not resist it. Solomon commanded him to go and bring the prince of demons, Beelzeboul, in chains. Ornias went and came back with Beelzeboul. Solomon interrogated Beelzeboul about the nature of demonic activity, about which angels had power over which demons, about the structure of the adversarial forces that moved through the created world. Beelzeboul answered. He also offered a piece of information that would make the Temple's construction possible: the whereabouts and nature of the shamir.

What Beelzeboul Revealed

The Temple could not be built with iron tools. Iron was the metal of weapons and war, and a house of peace could not be constructed with instruments designed for killing. But stone had to be cut, and cutting stone without metal was impossible with any tool in the human world. Beelzeboul described the shamir: a creature or substance whose nature was specifically suited to splitting stone along any desired line without metal contact. It was held by the prince of the sea, kept in a rooster's keeping, and retrieving it required going where Solomon himself could not go.

He sent his men. They brought back the shamir. The Temple's construction could proceed. And having demonstrated the effectiveness of the ring, Solomon worked his way through the demonic hierarchy, summoning each being in turn, interrogating it about its nature and its vulnerabilities, and then assigning it a specific role in the construction: some fetching water, some working stone, some handling heavy loads, others locked in prisons beneath the mount when their work was done.

What Beelzeboul Told Him About the Sky

Between construction assignments, Solomon pressed Beelzeboul for knowledge. "Tell me about the things in heaven," he said. Beelzeboul described a ritual that would allow Solomon to see the heavenly dragons winding along the sky at dawn, drawing the chariot of the sun, visible if the observer prepared properly and looked eastward from a state of ritual purity at the moment of first light. He described the stars that governed fortune, the angels who governed the stars, the countering angels who could override the stellar influences if invoked correctly. Solomon recorded all of it. The wisdom of the king extended from the structure of the demonic world below to the structure of the angelic world above, and the Temple he was building sat at the center of both.

The Thirty-Sixth Demon and the End of the Work

The last demon to confess to Solomon was Bianakith, the thirty-sixth of the zodiac demons. Bianakith's function was to lay waste houses and cause flesh to decay. Its vulnerability was specific: if a man wrote certain holy names on the front door of his home, Bianakith fled. Solomon recorded the information, glorified God, and gave the final command to the demonic workforce: finish the Temple.

When the Temple was complete, Solomon stood before it and the divine fire descended. Twelve times in the rabbinic tradition, according to Ginzberg's synthesis, God sent fire to earth as a sign. The fire at the Temple's dedication was the sign that what had been built was accepted: that the structure raised by human hands and demonic labor and angelic authority was fit to hold what Solomon had built it to hold. The man who had received wisdom as a gift at the beginning of his reign stood at the completion of the greatest thing he would build and watched fire come down from where the heavens began.

SolomonDemonsAngelsTempleMagicTestament Of Solomon
← All myths

From the tradition

Sources

4 sources

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

Testament of Solomon 1-7Testament of Solomon

A demon was feeding on a child. Every evening, after the workers building the Temple in Jerusalem finished their labor, a spirit called Ornias descended upon the boy who served the master craftsman. The demon stole half his wages. Half his food. And then it sucked the thumb of his right hand, draining his life force night after night until the child wasted away to skin and bone.

King Solomon loved this boy more than all the other artisans. He noticed the child growing thinner by the day and summoned him. "Do I not pay you double wages?" he asked. "Do I not give you double portions of food? Why do you grow weaker with each passing hour?"

The boy fell to his knees. "O king, after we are released from our work on the Temple of God, a demon comes to me at sunset. He takes half my pay and half my food. Then he seizes my right hand and sucks my thumb. My soul is crushed, and my body wastes away."

Solomon entered the Temple and prayed with all his soul, night and day, begging the Almighty for authority over the demon. And his prayer was answered.

The archangel Michael descended from heaven bearing a gift from the Lord of Hosts. A small ring. On it was engraved a seal, a pentagram, the sign of God's dominion over all spirits. Michael spoke: "Take this, O Solomon, son of David. The Lord God, the Most High, has sent you this gift. With it you shall bind every demon on earth, male and female. And with their forced labor, you shall build Jerusalem."

Solomon took the ring and gave it to the boy the next morning. "When the demon comes tonight," he said, "throw this ring at his chest and say: In the name of God, King Solomon calls you. Then run to me. Do not be afraid of anything you hear."

That evening, at the customary hour, Ornias came like a burning fire to steal from the child. But this time the boy hurled the ring at the demon's chest and shouted the words. The seal struck Ornias and bound him. The demon shrieked: "Child, what have you done to me? Take this ring off and I will give you all the gold of the earth! Only do not lead me to Solomon!"

But the boy ran. He ran straight to the king, rejoicing. And behind him, bound by the seal of the living God, the demon Ornias followed, howling, begging, dragging himself toward the throne of the wisest king who ever lived (1 Kings 6:1).

This was the beginning. The first demon had been caught. And through that single ring, Solomon would enslave every dark spirit under heaven and force them to build the house of God.

Full source
Testament of Solomon 31-42Testament of Solomon

Solomon pressed Beelzeboul further. "If you want a respite from your labor, tell me about the things in heaven."

The prince of demons leaned forward. "If you burn gum, incense, and sea-bulbs with nard and saffron, and light seven lamps in a row while in a state of ritual purity, then at dawn, when the sun rises, you will see the heavenly dragons winding themselves along the sky, dragging the chariot of the sun."

Solomon rebuked him. "Be silent. Continue sawing the marble as I commanded." He praised God and called for the next demon.

What came before him was barely a creature. A spirit whose face floated high in the air while the rest of its body curled away like a snail. It burst through Solomon's soldiers, kicked up a terrible dust storm, and hurled it into the air to terrify the court. Solomon stood, spat on the ground, and pressed the ring of God into the dust. The wind stopped instantly.

"Who are you?" Solomon demanded.

"I am Tephras, the spirit of ashes. I bring darkness upon men. I set fire to fields. I destroy homesteads. I am busiest in summer, creeping into the corners of walls by night and day."

"Under what star do you dwell?"

"At the very tip of the moon's horn, when it hangs in the south."

"By what angel are you defeated?"

"By the archangel Azael." Solomon summoned Azael, sealed the demon, and commanded Tephras to hurl great stones up to the workers on the higher levels of the Temple.

Then came something stranger still. Seven spirits appeared before Solomon, bound together, female demons, fair in appearance, who spoke with a single voice: "We are of the thirty-six elements of the cosmic ruler of darkness."

The first said: "I am Deception. I weave snares and excite false beliefs. The angel who defeats me is Lamechalal."

The second: "I am Strife. I bring weapons, timbers, stones, blades. The angel Baruchiachel defeats me."

The third: "I am Klothod, which means Battle. I turn the well-behaved against each other. The angel Marmarath defeats me."

The fourth: "I am Jealousy. I make men forget sobriety. I tear husbands from wives, children from parents, brothers from sisters. The great angel Balthial defeats me."

The fifth: "I am Power. I raise up tyrants and tear down kings. I furnish strength to every rebel. The angel Asteraoth defeats me."

The sixth: "I am Error. I will make you err, O Solomon, as I once caused you to slay your own brother (1 Kings 2:25). I lead souls into necromancy and away from all righteousness. The angel Uriel defeats me."

The seventh spoke last and coldest of all: "I am the worst. I will impose upon you the bonds of false worship. The sacrifice of locusts to Moloch will set me free. And through that act, your kingdom will shatter."

Solomon heard them all. He sealed the seven with his ring and, because they were formidable, set them to the heaviest work of all: digging the foundations of the Temple, which stretched 250 cubits in length. With a single murmur of protest, the seven cosmic demons began to dig.

Full source
Testament of Solomon 106-130Testament of Solomon

The thirty-sixth and final zodiac demon, Bianakith, confessed: "I lay waste houses and cause flesh to decay. But if a man writes certain holy names on the front door of his home, I flee from that place."

Solomon glorified the God of heaven and earth. He commanded the demons to fetch water for the Temple. Some he set to the heavy labor of construction. Others he locked in prisons. Others he ordered to work with fire, smelting gold and silver. He prepared sealed chambers for those yet to be captured.

Then, peace. Profound, extraordinary peace. Solomon's kingdom prospered. His army stood ready. Jerusalem rejoiced. The entire Temple of the Lord was built, and all the kings of the earth came from the ends of the world to behold it, bringing gold and silver, precious stones, bronze, iron, lead, and cedar wood that would never decay (1 Kings 6:1).

Among those who came was the Queen of the South. She entered the Temple and saw the altar of incense with its brazen supports, the gems of the lamps flashing in every color, emerald, sapphire, hyacinth, the vessels of gold and silver and bronze, the hangings dyed red with madder, the pillars made of pure gold. She saw the demons laboring in chains. She heard Solomon's wisdom and fell to the ground, glorifying the God of Israel.

During this time an old workman threw himself before Solomon, weeping. "My only son beats me. He insults me. He pulls out the hair of my head and threatens me with death." Solomon summoned the son, who denied everything. But before Solomon could render judgment, he noticed the demon Ornias laughing in the corner.

"Why do you laugh in my presence?" Solomon demanded.

"Not at you, O king. I laugh at this old man and his wretched son. In three days, the boy will die. The old man seeks to have him punished, not knowing his son's life is already forfeit."

Solomon sent father and son home and told the old man to return in three days. When he did, the old man wore black. His son was dead. Ornias had spoken true.

Solomon pressed the demon: "How did you know?" And Ornias revealed one of the great secrets of the demonic order: "We demons ascend into the firmament of heaven and fly among the stars. There we overhear the sentences pronounced upon the souls of men. Then we descend, by force, or fire, or sword, or accident. And carry out the destruction. If a man does not die by disaster or violence, we transform ourselves to appear human, so that men worship us in our disguise."

"How can you, being demons, ascend to heaven and mingle with the holy angels?" Solomon asked.

"Whatever is fulfilled in heaven is also mirrored on earth," Ornias said. "There are principalities and authorities. We demons fly in the air and hear the voices of the heavenly beings. But we have no firm ground to stand on. We lose our strength and fall, like leaves from trees. Men see us plummeting through the night sky and think the stars are falling. But it is only us, falling because we have nothing to hold on to. We crash like lightning through the darkness. And we set cities aflame and burn the fields."

Meanwhile, Adares, the King of Arabia, sent a letter pleading for help. A terrible wind demon blew from dawn until the third hour each day, killing men and beasts. Nothing could stop it. Solomon sent a servant with a leather flask and the ring of God. At dawn, the servant placed the flask before the demon's blast with the ring over its mouth. The demon blew straight into the flask. The servant sealed it instantly in the name of the Lord God of Hosts.

The flask was brought to Jerusalem, and the wind demon, Ephippas, was forced to lift the great foundation that no worker or demon had been able to move. He hoisted it up the Temple steps and laid it at the pinnacle, fulfilling the scripture: "The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner" (Psalm 118:22).

Ephippas also brought up a demon from the depths of the Red Sea, Abezithibod, who revealed a stunning secret. "I was present when Moses stood before Pharaoh in Egypt. I am the one who hardened Pharaoh's heart. I am the one whom the magicians Jannes and Jambres invoked against Moses. When the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea and the waters returned, I was trapped, held under a pillar in the depths ever since" (Exodus 14:21-28).

Solomon adjured both Ephippas and Abezithibod, and they swore: "The Lord your God lives, we will hold up this pillar until the end of the world. On whatever day this stone falls, the world will end."

And then came the fall.

Solomon took wives from every nation, numberless women (1 Kings 11:1-4). Among them he desired a Shunammite woman, a Jebusite. Her priests demanded a price: worship our gods, Raphan and Moloch. Solomon refused. He knew the glory of God. But the priests told the woman not to lie with him until he complied.

Love did what no demon could. The woman brought Solomon five grasshoppers and told him to crush them in the name of Moloch. It seemed so small a thing. Five insects. A minor act. But Solomon did it. And in that instant, the Spirit of God departed from him. His wisdom dimmed. His words became foolish. He was compelled to build temples to Baal, to Raphan, to Moloch, and to other idols.

The man who had bound every demon under heaven was himself enslaved, not by a spirit, but by desire. The king who forced Asmodeus to tread clay and Beelzeboul to saw marble could not resist a single woman's demand. And so Solomon wrote this testament as a warning: "I, wretch that I am, followed her counsel, and the glory of God departed from me. My spirit was darkened, and I became the sport of idols and demons."

He wrote it all down for the children of Israel. So that those who read it might attend to the end, and not the beginning. So that they might find grace forever.

Full source
Legends of the Jews 4:54Legends of the Jews

Fire that blazes with purpose, either as a sign of God's favor or His… well, let's just say, His displeasure. Fire is powerful, transformative. It can create and destroy. And in Jewish tradition, it's often a direct manifestation of the Divine.

In rabbinic tradition, God sent a Divine fire down to Earth not just once or twice, but a whopping twelve times! Ginzberg, in his monumental work, Legends of the Jews, breaks them down neatly: six times as a gift, a symbol of honor; and six times as, shall we say, a cosmic course correction.

Six times, fire descends as a kavod, an honor, a sign of divine acceptance. Remember the consecration of the Mishkan, the Tabernacle in the desert? Fire from Heaven consumed the offerings, a clear sign that God was present and pleased (Leviticus 9:24).

Then there’s Gideon, that reluctant hero. He offers a sacrifice, and bam! Fire leaps up and consumes it (Judges 6:21). The same thing happens with Manoah, the father of Samson (Judges 13:19-20). And David, too, experiences this Divine validation (1 (Chronicles 21:2)6).

And who could forget the dedication of Solomon's Temple? Talk about a spectacle! Fire rained down from the heavens, consuming the burnt offering and the sacrifices (2 Chronicles 7:1). A clear sign that God was dwelling amongst His people.

Finally, there's Elijah on Mount Carmel (1 (Kings 18:3)8). Facing off against the prophets of Baal, he calls upon God, and fire descends, consuming the offering, the wood, the stones, even the dust! Talk about a mic drop moment.

So, six times fire represents Divine favor. But what about the other side of the coin? The six times fire comes as a punishment? These are much darker tales.

First, there's the tragic story of Nadav and Abihu, the sons of Aaron. They offered "strange fire" before the Lord, and fire came forth and devoured them (Leviticus 10:1-2). A stark reminder that ritual and intention matter.

Then, there's the fire that broke out among the Israelites when they were grumbling and complaining in the desert (Numbers 11:1). A reminder that discontent can have fiery consequences.

And who can forget Korah and his rebellious crew? They challenged Moses' authority, and the earth swallowed them up, and then fire came and consumed the 250 men who offered incense (Numbers 16:35). Ouch.

Even Job, that paragon of righteousness, wasn't immune to fire's destructive power. In his trials, fire consumed his sheep and the servants tending them (Job 1:16). A reminder that even the righteous can suffer loss.

Finally, there are the two fires that consumed the first and second troops that Ahaziah sent against Elijah (2 (Kings 1:10-1)2). Elijah, in his righteous indignation, called down fire from heaven, twice! A evidence of the prophet's power and God's protection of His messengers.

So, twelve instances. Six of blessing, six of judgment. It's a powerful image, isn’t it? Fire, as a direct expression of the Divine will. It makes you think about the power we wield, the choices we make, and the kind of "fire" we bring into the world. Is it a fire of creation, of devotion, of building? Or a fire of destruction, of anger, of tearing down? Maybe, just maybe, these ancient stories can help us choose wisely.

Full source