A demon without a head was brought before Solomon. It had all the limbs of a man — arms, legs, torso — but where the head should have been, there was nothing. Just a stump above the shoulders.
"Who are you?" Solomon asked the empty air above the creature's neck.
"I am called Envy," the headless thing answered, its voice seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere. "I delight in devouring heads, because I want one for myself. I am always hungry for a head like yours, O king."
Solomon sealed him with the ring. The demon leapt up, threw itself down, and groaned: "Where have I come to? That traitor Ornias — I cannot see!"
"How do you see without a head?" Solomon pressed.
"By my feelings," the demon said.
"And how do you speak?"
"I am wholly voice. I have inherited the voices of many men — because I am the one who smashes the heads of children on their eighth day. When a child cries in the night, I become a spirit and glide on the sound of his voice. At crossroads I do my worst work. I seize a man's head, cut it off with my hands as with a sword, and place it on my own neck. The fire inside me swallows it up. And I inflict terrible sores on men's feet."
"By what angel are you defeated?"
"By the fiery flash of lightning."
Then a demon in the shape of a massive hound lumbered before the throne and spoke with a booming voice: "Hail, King Solomon!" The king stared. "Who are you, O hound?"
"Before you existed, I was a man — a scholar of surpassing knowledge who could hold back the stars of heaven. Now I am Rabdos, the Staff. I seize frenzied men by the throat and destroy them. But give me one of your servants, and I will lead him to a mountain where a green stone lies — a gem with which you may adorn the Temple of God."
Solomon sent a servant with the seal-ring. The demon showed him the green stone, the servant sealed the spot, and both demon and stone were brought back to Jerusalem. Solomon extracted two hundred shekels' worth of the stone for the supports of the incense table. Then he bound Rabdos and set him to guard a fiery spirit, whose flames lit the worksite day and night so the artisans could labor without ceasing.
Next came a demon in the form of a roaring lion. "I am the Lion-bearer," it said. "I am invisible. I leap upon the sick and make their bodies fail. I command legions of demons beneath me." Solomon adjured it in the name of God Sabaoth to reveal its weakness. The lion-demon was condemned to carry wood from the thicket and saw it into kindling with its own teeth, feeding the unquenchable furnace of the Temple.
Then a three-headed dragon of terrible color appeared. "I am the Crest of Dragons," it hissed. "I blind children in the womb. I twist their ears and make them deaf and mute. I cause men to fall down in fits, foaming and grinding their teeth." Solomon sealed it and set it to making bricks — the creature's human hands shaping clay for God's house.
Finally a spirit drifted in that was more terrifying than all the rest. It had the form of a woman — but only a head. No body. No limbs. Just a floating head with wild, disheveled hair like a serpent's mane.
"Who are you?" Solomon asked.
"Who are you?" she shot back. "Go wash your hands in your royal storehouses. Then sit down and ask me again."
Solomon did as she demanded. When he returned, the spirit spoke: "I am called Obyzouth. I never sleep. Every night I circle the entire world, visiting women in childbirth. I divine the hour, and if I am fortunate, I strangle the child. If not, I move on — but I never retire unsuccessful. I am a fierce spirit of myriad names and many shapes. Even your ring cannot truly hold me. My only work is the destruction of children — deafening their ears, blinding their eyes, binding their mouths, ruining their minds, and wracking their bodies with pain."
Solomon stared at her. Her body was cloaked in darkness, but her eyes glowed bright green, and her hair writhed like a dragon's tail. "By what angel are you defeated?"
"By Raphael. If any man writes his name upon a woman in childbirth, I cannot enter her." Solomon ordered the demon's hair bound and her body hung in front of the Temple — so that every child of Israel passing by would see this monster of the night displayed and powerless, and glorify the God who gave Solomon dominion over her.