Solomon spent seven years building God's house. He spent thirteen building his own. Josephus does not hide the contrast—the Temple had God's help, he writes, which is why it went faster. The palace had only human effort behind it, and it showed.
The royal complex was enormous. The main hall—called the House of the Forest of Lebanon—stretched a hundred cubits long, fifty wide, and thirty high, supported by rows of cedar pillars with Corinthian capitals. This was the public building where Solomon heard legal cases and received the masses. Adjacent to it stood a separate throne room for rendering judgment, and beyond that, a private palace built for his Egyptian queen.
The stonework throughout was extraordinary. Josephus describes walls built from stones ten cubits long, with decorative carvings so delicate that sculpted trees and leaves appeared to move in the breeze. The upper walls were plastered and painted in vivid colors. Solomon's throne was made of ivory and gold, flanked by lions on every one of its six steps—fourteen lions in all—with a half-bull supporting the king's back.
After twenty years of building, Solomon rewarded King Hiram of Tyre—who had supplied gold, silver, and timber for both structures—with twenty cities in the Galilee. Hiram visited, hated them, and told Solomon so. The rejected territory became known as the land of Cabul, a Phoenician word meaning "that which does not please."
But the relationship between the two kings was more than transactional. They traded riddles. Hiram sent Solomon puzzles and enigmas; Solomon solved every one. When Hiram could not solve Solomon's riddles in return, he paid large fines—until a young Tyrian named Abdemon cracked them for him. Then Hiram sent new riddles that stumped even Solomon, who had to pay Hiram back in kind.