Note [original edition] : We placed on his throne a counterfeit body, &c.]
The most received exposition of this passage is taken from the
following
Talmudic fable
2.
Solomon, having taken
Sidon, and slain the king of that city, brought
away his daughter
Jerâda, who became his favourite; and because she ceased not
to lament her father’s loss, he ordered the devils to make an image of him for
her consolation: which being done, and placed in her chamber, she and her
maids worshipped it morning and evening, according to their custom. At length
Solomon being informed of this idolatry, which was practised under his roof,
by his vizir
Asâf, he broke the image, and having chastised the woman, went
out into the desart, where he wept and made supplications to
God; who did not
think fit, however, to let his negligence pass without some correction. It
was
Solomon’s custom, while he eased or washed himself, to entrust his signet,
on which his kingdom depended, with a concubine of his named
Amîna: one day,
therefore, when she had the ring in her custody, a devil, named
Sakhar, came
to her in the shape of
Solomon, and received the ring from her; by virtue of
which he became possessed of the kingdom, and sat on the throne in the shape
which he had borrowed, making what alterations in the law he pleased.
Solomon, in the meantime, being changed in his outward appearance, and known
to none of his subjects, was obliged to wander about, and beg alms for his
subsistence; till at length, after the space of forty days, which was the time
the image had been worshipped in his house, the devil flew away, and threw the
signet into the sea: the signet was immediately swallowed by a fish, which
being taken and given to
Solomon, he found the ring in its belly, and having
by this means recovered the kingdom, took
Sakhar, and tying a great stone to
his neck, threw him into the lake of
Tiberias
1.
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2
V. Talm. En Jacob, part 2. & Yalkut in lib. Reg. p. 182.
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1
Al Beid. Jallal. Abu’lfeda.