Solomon Interrogates the Seven Cosmic Demons

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.

But I Solomon glorified the Lord, and bade another demon come before me. And there was brought to me a demon having all the limbs of a man, but without a head. And I, seeing him, said to him: "Tell me, who art thou?'' And he answered: "I am a demon." So I said to him: "Which?" And he answered me: "I am called Envy. For I delight to devour heads, being desirous to secure for myself a head; but I do not eat enough, but am anxious to have such a head as thou hast."

I Solomon, on hearing this, sealed him, stretching out my hand against his chest. Whereon the demon leapt up, and threw himself down, and gave a groan, saying: "Woe is me! where am I come to? O traitor Ornias, I cannot see!" So I said to him: "I am Solomon. Tell me then how thou dost manage to see." And he answered me: "By means of my feelings." I then, Solomon, having heard his voice come up to me, asked him how he managed to speak. And he answered me: "I, O King Solomon, am wholly voice, for I have inherited the voices of many men. For in the case of all men who are called dumb, I it is who smashed their heads, when they were children and had reached their eighth day. Then when a child is crying in the night, I become a spirit, and glide by means of his voice. . . . In the crossways1 also I have many services to render, and my encounter is fraught with harm. For I grasp in all instant a man's head, and with my hands, as with a sword, I cut it off, and put it on to myself. And in this way, by means of the fire which is in me, through my neck it is swallowed up. I it is that sends grave mutilations and incurable on men's feet, and inflict sores."

1. This seems the sense of enodiais, unless understood, trivialibus dis, "to the demons of the wayside or cross-road." Hecate was such a goddess, and in C.I. 26 we have mention of a daimon enodia, the Latin Trivia. As a subst. the neut. plur. enodia: = blisters caused by walking, in Theophr, Sud. 15.

And I Solomon, on hearing this, said to him: "Tell me how thou dost discharge forth the fire? Out of what sources dost thou emit it?" And the spirit said to me: "From the Day-star1. For here hath not yet been found that Elburion, to whom men offer prayers and kindle lights. And his name is invoked by the seven demons before me. And he cherishes them."

1. Or, "from the Orient."

But I said to him: "Tell me his name." But he answered: "I cannot tell thee. For if I tell his name, I render myself incurable. But he will come in response to his name." And on hearing this, I Solomon said to him: "Tell me then, by what angel thou art frustrated?" And he answered: "By the fiery flash of lightning."

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And I bowed myself before the Lord God of Israel, and bade him remain in the keeping of Beelzeboul until Iax1 should come.

1. Bornemann conjectures "a guardian or watcher." But the angel Iax recurs below in # 86.

Then I ordered another demon to come before me, and there came into my presence a hound, having a very large shape, and it spoke with a loud voice, and said, "Hail, Lord, King Solomon!" And I Solomon was astounded. I said to it: Who art thou, O hound?" And it answered: "I do indeed seem to thee to be a hound, but before thou wast, O King Solomon, I was a man that wrought many unholy deeds on earth. I was surpassingly learned in letters, and was so mighty that I could hold the stars of heaven back. And many divine works did I prepare. For I do harm to men who follow after our star, and turn them to . . . .1 And I seize the frenzied men by the larynx, and so destroy them."

1. The MS. has a vox nihili. Can it mean "her that is born of echo" (see above, p. 19, n. 8).?

And I Solomon said to him: "What is thy name?" And he answered: ''Staff" (Rabdos). And I said to him: "What is thine employment? And what results canst thou achieve?" And he replied: ''Give me thy man, and I will lead him away into a mountainous spot, and will show him a green stone tossed to and fro, with which thou mayest adorn the temple of the Lord God."

And I Solomon, on hearing this, ordered my servant to set off with him, and to take the finger-ring bearing the seal of God with him. And I said to him: "Whoever shall show thee the green stone, seal him with this finger-ring. And mark the spot with care, and bring me the demon hither. And the demon showed him the green stone, and he sealed it, and brought the demon to me. And I Solomon decided to confine with my seal on my right hand the two, the headless demon, likewise the hound, that was so huge1; he should be bound as well. And I bade the hound keep safe the fiery spirit so that lamps as it were might by day and night cast their light through its maw on the artisans at work.

1. The text seems corrupt here.

And I Solomon took from the mine of that stone 200 shekels for the supports of the table of incense, which was similar in appearance. And I Solomon glorified the Lord God, and then closed round the treasure of that stone. And I ordered afresh the demons to cut marble for the construction of the house of God. And I Solomon prayed to the Lord, and asked the hound, saying: "By what angel

[28] art thou frustrated?" And the demon replied: "By the great Brieus1."

1. Briareus is suggested by Bornemann as the right reading, but with little probability, since Briareus would not have been turned into an angel.

And I praised the Lord God of heaven and earth, and bade another demon come forward to me; and there came before me one in the form of a lion roaring. And he stood and answered me saying: "O king, in the form which I have, I am a spirit quite incapable of being perceived. Upon all men who lie prostrate with sickness I leap, coming stealthily along; and I render the man weak, so that his habit of body is enfeebled. But I have also another glory, O king. I cast out demons, and I have legions under my control. And I am capable of being received1 in my dwelling-places, along with all the demons belonging to the legions under me." But I Solomon, on hearing this, asked him: "What is thy name?" But he answered: "Lion-bearer, Rath2 in kind." And I said to him: "How art thou to be frustrated along with thy legions? What angel is it that frustrates thee?" And he answered: "If I tell thee my name, I bind not myself alone, but also the legions of demons under me."

1. dektikos seems here to bear this sense, as also in the fragment of a very old commentary on the Shepherd of Hermas in the Oxyrhynchus papyri. part i, by Grenfell and Hunt, 1898, p. 9. The dwelling-places are the persons of whom the spirit, good or evil, takes possession. So in the Docetic Acta Iohannis (ed. M.R. James) the Christ says: "I have no dwelling, and I have dwellings; I have no place, and I have places; I have no temple, and I have temples. ... Behold thyself in me who address thee."

2. radinos, "slender tapering" is suggested by Bornemann as the true reading, because a "staff" might be such.

So I said to him: "I adjure thee in the name of the God Sabaoth, to tell me by what name thou art frustrated along with thy host." And the spirit answered me: "The 'great among men,' who is to suffer many things at the hands of men, whose name is the figure 644, which is Emmanuel; he it is who has bound us, and who will then come and plunge us from the steep1 under water. He is noised abroad in the three letters which bring him down2."

1. The allusion is to the swine of Gadara.

2. The three characters are apparently the numbers 644.

And I Solomon, on hearing this, glorified God, and condemned his legion to carry wood from the thicket. And I condemned the

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lion-shaped one himself to saw up the wood small with his teeth, for burning in the unquenchable furnace for the Temple of God.

And I worshipped the Lord God of Israel, and bade another demon come forward. And there came before me a dragon, three-headed, of fearful hue. And I questioned him: "Who art thou?" And he answered me: "I am a caltrop-like spirit1, whose activity in three lines. But I blind children in women's wombs, and twirl their ears round. And I make them deaf2 and mute. And I have again in my third head means of slipping in3. And I smite men in the limbless part of the body, and cause them to fall down, and foam, and grind their teeth. But I have my own way of being frustrated, Jerusalem being signified in writing, unto the place called 'of the head4." For there is fore-appointed the angel of the great counsel, and now he will openly dwell on the cross. He doth frustrate me, and to him am I subject."

1. Tribolaios. The tribolos was a three-spiked instrument, thrown on the ground to wound horses' feet.

2. bubá, an unknown word.

3. a word of doubtful sense.

4. i.e. Golgotha. The old legend was that Adam's skull reposed in this spot, and that the cross was planted upon it.

"But in the place where thou sittest, O King Solomon, standeth a column in the air, of purple...1 The demon called Ephippas hath brought [it] up from the Red Sea, from inner Arabia. He it is that shall be shut up in a skin-bottle and brought before thee. But at the entrance of the Temple, which thou hast begun to build, O King Solomon, lies stored much gold, which dig thou up and carry off." And I Solomon sent my servant, and found it to be as the demon told me. And I sealed him with my ring, and praised the Lord God."

1. The meaning of the last part of this compound is unknown.

So I said to him: "What art thou called?" And the demon said: "I am the crest of dragons." And I bade him make bricks in the Temple. He had human hands.

And I adored the Lord God of Israel, and bade another demon present himself. And there came before me a spirit in woman's form, that had a head without any limbs1, and her hair was dishevelled. And I said to her: "Who art thou?" But she answered: "Nay, who art thou? And why dost thou want to hear concerning me? But, as thou wouldst learn, here I stand bound before thy face. Go

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then into thy royal storehouses and wash thy hands. Then sit down afresh before thy tribunal, and ask me questions; and thou shalt learn, O king, who I am."

1. Here we seem to have the Greek head of Medusa transformed into a demon.

And I Solomon did as she enjoined me, and restrained myself because of the wisdom dwelling in me1; in order that I might hear of her deeds, and reprehend them, and manifest them to men. And I sat down, and said to the demon: "What art thou?" And she said: "I am called among men Obizuth; and by night I sleep not, but go my rounds over all the world, and visit women in childbirth. And divining the hour I take my stand2; and if I am lucky, I strangle the child. But if not, I retire to another place. For I cannot for a single night retire unsuccessful. For I am a fierce3 spirit, of myriad names and many shapes. And now hither, now thither I roam. And to westering parts I go my rounds. But as it now is, though thou hast sealed me round with the ring of God, thou hast done nothing. I am not standing before thee, and thou wilt not be able to command me. For I have no work other than the destruction of children, and the making their ears to be deaf, and the working of evil to their eyes, and the binding their mouths with a bond, and the ruin of their minds, and paining of their bodies."

1. The Sophia, identified by Philo and the early Fathers with the Logos, is supposed to have entered into and taken possession of Solomon as it afterwards did with Jesus.

2. stamatihu, an unknown verb.

3. xalepón.

When I Solomon heard this, I marvelled at her appearance, for I beheld all her body to be in darkness. But her glance was altogether bright and greeny, and her hair was tossed wildly like a dragon's; and the whole of her limbs were invisible. And her voice was very clear as it came to me. And I cunningly said: "Tell me by what angel thou art frustrated, O evil spirit?" By she answered me: "By the angel of God called Afarôt, which is interpreted Raphael, by whom I am frustrated now and for all time. His name, if any man know it, and write the same on a woman in childbirth, then I shall not be able to enter her. Of this name the number is 6401." And I Solomon having heard this, and having glorified the Lord, ordered her hair to be bound, and that she should be hung up in front of the Temple of God; that all the children of Israel, as they passed, might see it, and glorify the Lord God of Israel, who had given me this authority, with wisdom and power from God, by means of this signet.

1. Bornemann (Zeitschr. f.d. Hist. Theol. 1844, p. 38) gives the tale of figures. r = 100; a = 1; f = 500; a = 1; m = 8; l = 30. Total 640.

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And I again ordered another demon to come before me. And the came, rolling itself along, one in appearance like to a dragon, but having the face and hands of a man. And all its limbs, except the feet, were those of a dragon; and it had wings on its back. And when I beheld it, I was astonied, and said: "Who art thou, demon, and what art thou called? And whence hast thou come? Tell me."