King Solomon, renowned for his unparalleled wisdom and wealth, boasted a power beyond human comprehension: dominion over demons. Armed with a divine ring, he turned malevolence into miracles, compelling these beings to serve both his earthly ambitions and divine purposes.
Solomon and His Divine Dominion Over Demons
Solomon, a man unmatched in fortune, was blessed by God with the power to subjugate demons to his will, transforming their malign influence into a force for human benefit.
He developed enchantments capable of curing diseases and definitively exorcising demons. He had demons and spirits as servants, capable of executing tasks instantly at his command. Thanks to these spirits, he was able to cultivate tropical vegetation in Palestine, obtaining water from India.
Animals also served him; for example, he was transported by an eagle to the desert and back in a single day to found the city of Tadmor, distinct from Syrian Palmyra. This desert journey was near the “mountains of darkness,” home to the tried spirits.
Solomon, protected by a sacred ring, compelled the fallen angels Azza and Azzael to reveal heavenly secrets to him.
The Construction of Solomon’s Temple: Supernatural Alliances and Challenges
During the construction of the Temple, demons became an indispensable aid to Solomon.
A particular incident involved an evil spirit that continually stole money and food. After fervent prayers, the archangel Michael bestowed upon Solomon a ring with a divine seal, with which he could confine all the demons of the earth.
Armed with this ring, Solomon subdued the demons, compelling them to contribute to the construction of the Temple, identifying each by their name and the angel, star, or zodiac sign to which they were subjected.
Ornias, a vampiric-natured spirit who had previously assaulted one of Solomon’s servants, was the first demon summoned by the latter. He received Solomon’s order to cut stones near the Temple and to bring before him the prince of demons.
Bearing Solomon’s sealed ring, Ornias presented himself before Beelzebub, the monarch of demons, and demanded his presence before the king. After an initial resistance marked by a burst of fire, Beelzebub complied and presented himself before Solomon, committing to summon all the unclean spirits, starting with Onoskelis and Asmodeus.
The Builder Demons: The Hidden Force Behind Solomon’s Temple
Beelzebub, in a subsequent revelation, claimed to be the sole survivor of the fallen angels from heaven, ruling over all beings of Tartarus and mentioning having a son in the Red Sea.
The ash demon, Tephros, and a group of seven female spirits, identified as part of the thirty-six elements of darkness, were some of the beings summoned by Beelzebub. At Solomon’s behest, these beings began the work of digging the foundations of the Temple. The list of demons did not end there.
Solomon confronted Envy, a headless demon longing to possess one; Rabdos, a canine-shaped spirit that revealed a green stone to decorate the Temple; and the thirty-six rulers of darkness, compelled to supply water to the Temple.
Some demons were destined for the hardest labor of construction, others were imprisoned, and a group was assigned to metal refining. Thus, under the direction and power of Solomon, the demons contributed significantly to the building of the Temple.
Once the temple was completed with the assistance of the demons, dignitaries from various lands, including the queen of Sheba, known for her magical arts, came to admire not only the grandeur and design of the building but also Solomon’s wisdom, its builder.
Judgment, Magic, and Redemption: Solomon’s Encounters with the Supernatural
On one occasion, an old man accused his son of impiety, alleging that he had attempted to physically assault him. Despite the young man’s denial, his father demanded a death sentence.
During this exchange, Solomon detected the mocking laughter of the demon Ornias, who revealed he was not laughing out of respect for the king but at the irony of the situation: the father, unaware of his son’s imminent natural death within three days, sought to condemn him.
Solomon, postponing his decision, discovered the truth of Ornias’s words by summoning the old man again five days later, confirming the young man’s death.
After some time, King Adares of Arabia sought Solomon’s help through a letter, pleading with him to rid his kingdom of a destructive demon that manifested as a wind and evaded capture. Solomon sent one of his slaves with his magical ring and a leather bottle to Arabia, where the slave managed to trap the spirit in the bottle.
Back at the Temple, Solomon observed with little surprise how the bottle, containing the spirit, moved towards him in a sign of reverence. This spirit later contributed significantly to Solomon’s work, moving an immense stone from the Red Sea to the Temple to serve as a cornerstone, a task impossible for both humans and other demons.
The Decline of Solomon: Between Love, Idolatry, and the Loss of His Glory
Solomon’s fall was due to his weakness; he fell in love with Shulamit, a Jebusite woman. Influenced by the priests of the idols Moloch and Rephan, whom she worshipped, Solomon initially resisted her requests.
However, he yielded to her request to sacrifice five locusts in honor of Moloch. This act cost him the loss of the divine spirit, his strength, and wisdom, leading him to a state of despair so deep that he built temples dedicated to Baal and Rephan to please his lover.
Solomon’s legacy is a testament to how knowledge and power, when used wisely, can achieve the impossible.
Not only did he build a temple with the help of demons, but he also pushed the boundaries of what was considered possible in his time. Although his fall marks a tragic end, his story continues to inspire through the centuries, teaching us about the complexity of human nature and the thin line between good and evil.
With information from Sefaria: A Living Library of Jewish Texts Online
