170 myths · Page 2 of 6
Solomon flew on a carpet 60 miles wide and praised his own power. The wind dropped 40,000 men until the king learned one word again.
Solomon found a silver plate in a statue's throat, but its dead king's warning only made sense after his own crown was taken away.
Solomon enters Proverbs without pretending wisdom was born in him; he was young, simple, and given prudence before God rejoiced.
Scribes waited with the scroll open. The king's mouth stopped over a line he had known the day before, and the crown on his head was no help.
Solomon carried the Ark toward the Temple and the gates sealed shut against him. Twenty-four psalms could not open them. One name did.
A merchant overheard the crew planning to kill him for his gold. He picked a loud fight with his son and threw the money over the side.
Hezekiah's mother heard what salamander blood could do. She anointed her son before Ahaz carried him to Moloch's fire, and the flames did not touch him.
Seventy flames waited in the new sanctuary, five candelabras on the south wall and five on the north. Solomon lit the lamp that had crossed the wilderness.
A man with two heads stood in Solomon's court demanding a double share of his father's estate. Both mouths were talking. Solomon ordered hot water.
Two children swore they would never marry without each other's blessing. Years later, she came with gold to buy her release. He refused to take a coin.
A serpent arrived in court with a man's neck in its coils and a verse from scripture as its legal brief. Solomon stripped it of the advantage.
Three brothers worked for Solomon thirteen years. Two took gold when he offered them a choice. The third took advice. Only the third came home.
The Queen of Sheba came to find where Solomon's wisdom failed. She brought a gender test, a flower test, and finally a door that would not open.
A wooden well, a dust that lit a house, a plant that honored the dead. The Queen of Sheba made Solomon name each hidden thing.
A spirit tore through Arabia and no army could stop it. Solomon sent a servant with a leather bottle and a ring engraved with the divine name.
The Temple was complete, the Ark was ready, and the gates refused to open. Solomon prayed until he understood whose name had to be spoken.
Solomon asked if anyone surpassed him in the world. The ant queen would not answer unless he held her first. Then she told him yes.
No iron could touch the Temple stones. Only the shamir could split rock without weapons. Only Asmodeus knew where the shamir was kept.
Asmodeus wore Solomon's face and ruled his throne. Solomon wandered for three years telling people his name while they laughed.
Two men were lurking near the palace walls. Solomon put on servant's clothes, introduced himself, said he had a key, and proposed a robbery.
Hezekiah directed his scribes to copy Isaiah, Proverbs, and the Song of Songs. Then he buried a book of cures, and the rabbis praised both decisions.
A Levite named Shimur led a group east to Babylon and hid the Temple's greatest treasures in a tower. The menorah (the lampstand) had twenty-six pearls on.
Joab had shown the officers the letter that killed Uriah, and it was in David's own hand. That is the debt the old king handed his son.
She was not a beauty. Her skin was sallow, her height ordinary, and she was seventy-five years old the day they walked her into the palace.
Ten fattened oxen, twenty more off the grass, a hundred sheep. That was one ordinary day, and a thousand women cooked all of it.
The Torah gave kings three specific prohibitions. Solomon knew all three and violated all three. His reasoning was brilliant. His reasoning was wrong.
Samuel mourned for Saul until the day Samuel himself died. He had made the king and he watched what the king became. The grief was his own making.
Solomon's legendary throne was not just a seat of power. It moved, tested every visitor, and punished rulers who lied before it.
One of his wives asked him to bow to her father's idols. He had already ruled that women do not count, she said, so what harm was it? He bowed.
One Temple candelabra came out of the mold heavier than the wilderness lamp by a single coin's weight. It went back into the furnace eighty times.
