The Testament of Solomon

 
The Testament of Solomon
Translated by F. C. Conybeare
Digital edition by Joseph H. Peterson, 997.
This text is an Old Testament Pseudepigraphic catalog of demons summoned by King Solomon, and how they can be countered by invoking angels and other magical techniques. It is one of the oldest magical texts attributed to King Solomon, dating First to Third Century A.D. Translation is by F. C. Conybeare, Jewish Quarterly Review, October, 1898. Compare with the translation of D. C. Duling in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha volume 1, Edited by James H. Charlesworth, Doubleday, 1983, p. 935 ff.
The Testament of Solomon
(translated from the codex of the Paris Library, after the edition of Fleck, Wissensch. Reise, bd. ii. abth. 3)
Greek title: —
1. Testament of Solomon, son of David, who was king in Jerusalem, and mastered and controlled all spirits of the air, on the earth, and under the earth. By means of them also he wrought all the transcendent works of the Temple. Telling also of the authorities they wield against men, and by what angels these demons are brought to naught.
Of the sage Solomon.
Blessed art thou, O Lord God, who didst give Solomon such authority. Glory to thee and might unto the ages. Amen.
2. And behold, when the Temple of the city of Jerusalem was being built, and the artificers were working thereat, Ornias the demon came among them toward sunset; and he took away half of the pay of the chief-deviser’s [D: master workman’s] little boy, as well as half his food.[16] He also continued to suck the thumb of his right hand every day. And the child grew thin, although he was very much loved by the king.
3. So King Solomon called the boy one day, and questioned him, saying: “Do I not love thee more than all the artisans who are working in the Temple of God? Do I not give thee double wages and a double supply of food? How is it that day by day and hour by hour thou growest thinner?”
4. But the child said to the king: “I pray thee, O king. Listen to what has befallen all that thy child hath. After we are all released from our work on the Temple of God, after sunset, when I lie down to rest, one of the evil demons comes and takes away from me one half of my pay and one half of my food. Then he also takes hold of my right hand and sucks my thumb. And lo, my soul is oppressed, and so my body waxes thinner every day.”
5. Now when I Solomon heard this, I entered the Temple of God, and prayed with all my soul, night and day, that the demon might be delivered into my hands, and that I might gain authority over him. And it came about through my prayer that grace was given to me from the Lord Sabaoth by Michael his archangel. [He brought me] a little ring, having a seal consisting of an engraved stone, and said to me:
“Take, O Solomon, king, son of David, the gift which the Lord God has sent thee, the highest Sabaoth. With it thou shalt lock up all demons of the earth, male and female; and with their help thou shalt build up Jerusalem. [But] thou [must] wear this seal of God. And this engraving of the seal of the ring sent thee is a Pentalpha.”
6. And I Solomon was overjoyed, and praised and glorified the God of heaven and earth. And on the morrow I called the boy, and gave him the ring, and said to him: “take this, and at the hour in which the demon shall come unto thee, throw this ring at the chest of the demon, and say to him: ‘In the name of God, King Solomon calls thee hither.’ And then do thou come running to me, without having any misgivings or fear in respect of aught thou mayest hear on the part of the demon.”
7. So the child took the ring, and went off; and behold, at the [17] customary hour Ornias, the fierce demon, came like a burning fire to take the pay from the child. But the child according to the instructions received from the king, threw the ring at the chest of the demon, and said: “King Solomon calls thee hither.” And then he went off at a run to the king. But the demon cried out aloud, saying: “Child, why hast thou done this to me? Take the ring off me, and I will render to thee the gold of the earth. Only take this off me, and forbear to lead me away to Solomon.” [D: Remove the ring and give it back to Solomon.]
8. But the child said to the demon: “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, I will not brook thee. So come hither.” And the child came at a run, rejoicing, to the king, and said: “I have brought the demon, O king, as thou didst command me, O my master. And behold, he stands before the gates of the court of thy palace, crying out, and supplicating with a loud voice; offering me the silver and gold of the earth if I will only bring him unto thee.” [D: would not deliver him to you.]
9. And when Solomon heard this, he rose up from his throne, and went outside into the vestibule of the court of his palace; and there he saw the demon, shuddering and trembling. And he said to him: “Who art thou?” And the demon answered: “I am called Ornias.”
10. And Solomon said to him: “Tell me, O demon, to what zodiacal sign thou art subject.” And he answered: “To the Water-pourer. [D: Aquarius.] And those who are consumed with desire for the noble virgins upon earth . . . . [there appears to be a lacuna here], these I strangle. [D: I strangle those who reside in Aquarius because of their passion for women whose zodiacal sign is Virgo.] But in case there is no disposition to sleep [D: while in a trance…], I am changed into three forms. When ever men come to be enamoured of women, I metamorphose myself into a comely female; and I take hold of the men in their sleep, and play with them. And after a while I again take to my wings, and hide me to the heavenly regions. I also appear as a lion, and I am commanded by all the demons. I am offspring of the archangel Uriel [D: Ouriel.], the power of God.”
11. I Solomon, having heard the name of the archangel, prayed and glorified God,the Lord of heaven and earth. And I sealed the [18] demon and set him to work at stone-cutting, so that he might cut the stones in the Temple, which, lying along the shore, had been brought by the Sea of Arabia. But he, fearful of the iron, continued and said to me: “I pray thee, King Solomon, let me go free; and I will bring you all the demons.” And as he was not willing to be subject to me, I prayed the archangel Uriel to come and succour me; and I forthwith beheld the archangel Uriel coming down to me from the heavens.
12. And the angel bade the whales of the sea come out of the abyss. [D: sea monsters… The sea monsters are named Behemoth (the male) and Leviathan (the female) in 4 Ezra 6:48-52, 1 En 60:7.] And he cast his destiny upon the ground, and that [destiny] made subject [to him] the great demon. [D: he withered up their species and cast his fate to the ground.] And he commanded the great demon and bold Ornias, to cut stones at the Temple. [D adds: and to bring to completion the construction of the Temple.] And accordingly I Solomon glorified the God of heaven and Maker of the earth. And he bade Ornias come with his destiny, and gave him the seal, saying: “Away with thee, and bring me hither the prince of all the demons.”
13. So Ornias took the finger-ring, and went off to Beelzeboul, who has kingship over the demons. He said to him: “Hither! Solomon calls thee.” But Beelzeboul, having heard, said to him: “Tell me, who is this Solomon of whom thou speakest to me?” Then Ornias threw the ring at the chest of Beelzeboul, saying: “Solomon the king calls thee.” But Beelzeboul cried aloud with a mighty voice, and shot out a great burning flame of fire; and he arose, and followed Ornias, and came to Solomon.
14. And when I saw the prince of demons, I glorified the Lord God, Maker of heaven and earth, and I said: “Blessed art thou, Lord God Almighty, who hast given to Solomon thy servant wisdom, the assessor of the wise, and hast subjected unto me all the power of he devil.”
15. And I questioned him, and said: “Who art thou?” The demon replied: “I am Beelzebub, the exarch of the demons. And all [19] the demons have their chief seats close to me. And I it is who make manifest the apparition of each demon.” [D: The demon said, “I am Beelzeboul, the ruler of the demons.” I  demanded that without interruption he sit next to me and explain the manifestations of the demons.] And he promised to bring to me in bonds all the unclean spirits. And I again glorified the God of heaven and earth, as I do always give thanks to him.
16. I then asked of the demon if there were females among them. And when he told me that there were, I said that I desired to see them. So Beelzeboul went off at high speed, and brought unto me Onoskelis, that had a very pretty shape, and the skin of a fair-hued woman; and she tossed her head. [D: “… fair complexion, but her legs were those of a mule.” Onoskelis means “she who has ass’s legs.”]
17. And when she was come, I said to her: “Tell me who art thou?” But she said to me: “I am called Onoskelis, a spirit wrought… [?shabtai/Saturn?], lurking upon the earth. [D: My name is Onoskelis. I am a spirit which has been made into a body.] There is a golden cave where I lie. But I have a place that ever shifts. [D: I have a many sided character.] At one time I strangle men with a noose; at another, I creep up from the nature to the arms [in marg: “worms”]. [D: I pervert them from their true natures.] But my most frequent dwelling-places are the precipices, caves, ravines. Oftentimes, however, do I consort with men in the semblance of a woman, and above all with those of a dark skin. [D: honey-colored] For they share my star with me; since they it is who privily or openly worship my star, without knowing that they harm themselves, and but whet my appetite for further mischief. For they wish to provide money by means of memory (commemoration?) [D: by remembering (me)], but I supply a little to those who worship me fairly.”
18. And I Solomon questioned her about her birth, and she replied: “I was born of a voice untimely, the so-called echo of a man’s ordure dropped in a wood.” [For the demon born of an echo we have an analogue in the Hebrew Bath Kol, “the daughter of a voice.” In the Gnostic Hymn to Hermes, edited by Dieterich, Abrasax, p 19, we read, l. 104…] [D: I was generated from an unexpected voice which is called a voice of the echo of a black (lead?) heaven, emitted in matter. (meaning uncertain)]
19. And I said to her: “Under what star dost thou pass?” And she answered me: “Under the star of the full moon, for the reason that the moon travels over most things.” Then I said to her: “And [20] what angel is it that frustrates thee?” And she said to me: “He that in thee [or “through thee”] is reigning.”
And I thought that she mocked me, and bade a soldier strike her. But she cried aloud, and said: “I am [subjected] to thee, O king, by the wisdom of God given to thee, and by the angel Joel.” [Instead of “and by the angel Joel.” D reads “So I uttered the name of the Holy One of Israel and…”]
20. So I commanded her to spin the hemp for the ropes used in the building of the house of God; and accordingly, when I had sealed and bound her, she was so overcome and brought to naught as to stand night and day spinning the hemp.
21. And I at once bade another demon to be led unto me; and instantly there approached me the demon Asmodeus, bound, and I asked him: “Who art thou?” [Asmodeus also appears in Tobit 3:8, and is ultimately derived from the Avestan demon Aeshma-daeva (“demon of wrath”).-JHP] But he shot on me a glance of anger and rage, and said: “And who art thou?” And I said to him: “Thus punished as thou art, answerest thou me?” But he, with rage, said to me: “But how shall I answer thee, for thou art a son of man; whereas I was born an angel’s seed by a daughter of man, so that no word of our heavenly kind addressed to the earth- born can be overweening. [arrogant.] Wherefore also my star is bright in heaven, and men call it, some the Wain [D: Great Bear.], and some the dragon’s child. I keep near unto this star. So ask me not many things; for thy kingdom also after a little time is to be disrupted, and thy glory is but for a season. And short will be thy tyranny over us; and then we shall again have free range over mankind, so as that they shall revere us as if we were gods, not knowing, men that they are, the names of the angels set over us.”
22. And I Solomon, on hearing this, bound him more carefully, and ordered him to be flogged with thongs of ox-hide, and to tell me humbly what was his name and what his business. [D: flogged with a rod.] And he answered me thus: “I am called Asmodeus among mortals, and my business is to plot against the newly wedded, so that they may not know one another. And I sever them utterly by many calamities, and I waste away the beauty of virgin women, and estrange their hearts.”
23. And I said to him: “Is this thy only business?” And he answered me: “I transport men into fits of madness and desire, when they have wives of their own, so that they leave them, and go off by [21] night and day to others that belong to other men; with the result that they commit sin, and fall into murderous deeds.” [D: I spread (or, I *sting to?) madness about women through the stars, and I have often committed a rash of murders.]
24. And I adjured him by the name of the Lord Sabaôth, saying: “Fear God, Asmodeus, and tell me by what angel thou art frustrated.” But he said: “By Raphael, the archangel that stands before the throne of God. But the liver and gall of a fish put me to flight, when smoked over ashes of the tamarisk.” [D: smoking on coals of charcoal. Compare Tobit, where Raphael instructs him in the use of the gall, heart, and liver for various cures.] I again asked him, and said: “Hide not aught from me. For I am Solomon, son of David, King of Israel. Tell me the name of the fish which thou reverest.” And he answered: “It is the Glanos by name, and is found in the rivers of Assyria; wherefore it is that I roam about in those parts.” [D: “sheatfish”, a large catfish. Gk. ho, hê glanis.]
25. And I said to him: “Hast thou nothing else about thee, Asmodeus?” And he answered: “The power of God knoweth, which hath bound me with the indissoluble bonds of yonder one’s seal, that whatever I have told thee is true. I pray thee, King Solomon, condemn me not to [go into] water.” But I smiled, and said to him: “As the Lord God of my fathers liveth, I will lay iron on thee to wear. But thou shalt also make the clay for the entire construction of the Temple, treading it down with thy feet.” And I ordered them to give him ten water-jars to carry water in. And the demon groaned terribly, and did the work I ordered him to do. And this I did, because that fierce demon Asmodeus knew even the future. And I Solomon glorified God, who gave wisdom to me Solomon his servant. And the liver of the fish and its gall I hung on the spike of a reed, and burned it over Asmodeus because of his being so strong, and his unbearable malice was thus frustrated.
26. And I summoned again to stand before me Beelzeboul, the prince of demons, and I sat him down on a raised seat of honour, and said to him: “Why art thou alone, prince of the demons?” And he said to me: “Because I alone am left of the angels of heaven that came down. [i.e. fell] For I was first angel in the first heaven being entitled Beelzeboul. And now I control all those who are bound in Tartarus. But I too have a child, and he haunts the Red Sea. [D: There also accompanied me another ungodly
(angel).] And on any suitable occasion he comes up to me again, being subject to me; and reveals to me what he has done, and I support him. [D: when he is ready, he will come in triumph.] [22]
27. I Solomon said unto him: “Beelzeboul, what is thy employment?” And he answered me: “I destroy kings. [D: I bring destruction by means of tyrants.] I ally myself with foreign tyrants. And my own demons I set on to men [D: to be worshipped], in order that the latter may believe in them and be lost. And the chosen servants of God, priests and faithful men, I excite unto desires for wicked sins, and evil heresies, and lawless deeds; and they obey me, and I bear them on to destruction. And I inspire men with envy, and [desire for] murder, and for wars and sodomy, and other evil things. And I will destroy the world.” [So MS P. D reads simply “I bring about jealousies and murders in a country, and I instigate wars.”]
28. So I said to him: “Bring to me thy child, who is, as thou sayest, in the Red Sea.” But he said to me: “I will not bring him to thee. But there shall come to me another demon called Ephippas. [According to D, Ephippas is an Arabian wind demon.] Him will I bind, and he will bring him up from the deep unto me.” And I said to him: “How comes thy son to be in the depth of the sea, and what is his name? “And he answered me: “Ask me not, for thou canst not learn from me. However, he will come to thee by any command, and will tell thee openly.” [D adds: So I said to him, “Tell me in which star you reside.” “The one called by men the Evening Star.”]
29. I said to him: “Tell me by what angel thou art frustrated.” And he answered: “By the holy and precious name of the Almighty God, called by the Hebrews by a row of numbers, of which the sum is 644, and among the Greeks it is Emmanuel. [The text must be faulty, for the word Emmanuel is the Hebrew. The sum 644 is got by adding together the Greek numbers.] And if one of the Romans adjure me by the great name of the power Eleéth, I disappear at once.”
30. I Solomon was astounded when I heard this; and I ordered him to saw up Theban marbles. And when he began to saw the marbles, the other demons cried out with a loud voice, howling because of their king Beelzeboul. [We hear of Pentelic marble in Strabo, but the reference in the text may be to Thebes in Egypt.]
31. But I Solomon questioned him, saying: “If thou wouldst gain a respite, discourse to me about the things in heaven.” And Beelzeboul said: “Hear, O king, if thou burn gum, and incense, and bulb of the sea, with nard and saffron, and light seven lamps in an earthquake, thou wilt firmly fix thy house. [Perhaps the “sea-bulbs” were the balls of hair-like texture which the sea washes up on Mediterranean shores, e.g. in Tunisia. Perhaps “[seven lamps] in a row,” should be read.] And if, being pure, [23] thou light them at dawn in the sun alight, then wilt thou see the heavenly dragons, how they wind themselves along and drag the chariot of the sun.” [For the condition here insisted on cp. Dieterich, Abrasax, p.141, where in an incantation ceremonial purity is similarly insisted on. The ritual of a magic papyrus given by Dieterich, p.169, is very similar to that here prescribed in the Testament.]
32. And I Solomon, having heard this, rebuked him, and said: “Silence for this present, and continue to saw the marbles as I commanded thee.” [So Luke xxii. 51.] And I Solomon praised God, and commanded another demon to present himself to me. And one came before me who carried his face high up in the air, but the rest of the spirit curled away like a snail. And it broke through the few soldiers, and raised also a terrible dust on the ground, and carried it upwards; and then again hurled it back to frighten us, and asked what questions I could ask as a rule. And I stood up, and spat on the ground in that spot, and sealed with the ring of God. [For the use of spittle to produce a cure or other effect in a magical way, cp. Mark vii. 33 and viii. 23. In John ix. 6, Jesus, we read, “spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and anointed the eyes with the clay.” Of this magic use of spittle Pliny, in his Natural History, gives numerous examples. It was common in antiquity.] And forthwith the dust-wind stopped. Then I asked him, saying: “Who art thou, O wind?” Then he once more shook up a dust, and answered me: “What wouldst thou have, King Solomon?” I answered him: “Tell me what thou art called, and I would fain ask thee a question. But so far I give thanks to God who has made me wise to answer their evil plots.”
33. But [the demon] answered me: “I am the spirit of the ashes (Tephras).” And I said to him: “What is thy pursuit?” And he said: “I bring darkness on men, and set fire to fields; and I bring homesteads to naught. But most busy am I in summer. However, when I get an opportunity, I creep into corners of the wall, by night and day. For I am offspring of the great one, and nothing less.” Accordingly I said to him: “Under what star dost thou lie?” And he answered: “In the very tip of the moon’s horn, when it is found in the south. There is my star. For I have been bidden to restrain the convulsions of the hemitertian fever; and this is why many men pray to the hemitertian fever, using these three names: Bultala, Thallal, [24] Melchal. And I heal them.” And I said to him: “I am Solomon; when therefore thou wouldst do harm, by whose aid dost thou do it?” But he said to me: “By the angel’s, by whom also the third day’s fever is lulled to rest.” So I questioned him, and said: “And by what name?” [Cp. Acts iv. 7.] And he answered: “That of the archangel Azael.” And I summoned the archangel Azael, and set a seal on the demon, and commanded him to seize great stones, and toss them up to the workmen on the higher parts of the Temple. And, being compelled, the demon began to do what he was bidden to do.
34. And I glorified God afresh who gave me this authority, and ordered another demon to come before me. And there came seven spirits, females, bound and woven together, fair in appearance and comely. [The Pleiades seem to be referred to. Cp.12] And I Solomon, seeing them, questioned them and said: “Who are ye?” But they, with one accord, said with one voice: “We are of the thirty-three elements of the cosmic ruler of the darkness.” [Rom. xv. 6 has the same phrase. For “thirty-three” we should read “thirty-six” elements. Note that later in the Testament these seven spirits are not among the Kosmokrators, a proof that the document before us is a composite one.] [Paul speaks of the Kosmokrators in Eph. vi. 12: “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness.” See Iren. Haer. I. i. 10.] And the first said: “I am Deception.” The second said: “I am Strife.” The third: “I am Klothod, which is battle.” The fourth: “I am Jealousy.” The fifth: “I am Power.” The sixth: “I am Error.” The seventh: “I am the worst of all, and our stars are in heaven. Seven stars humble in sheen, and all together. And we are called as it were goddesses. We change our place all and together, and together we live, sometimes in Lydia, sometimes in Olympus, sometimes in a great mountain.”
[Job xxxviii. 31, in the Revised Version: “Canst thou bind the cluster of the Pleiades?” They had a malign influence. The grouping of evil spirits by sevens is common in Babylonian and Jewish folk-lore. As examples I may cite the Testamentum of Reuben, ch. 2, and the seven evil spirits of the N.T. Possibly, however, the Seven Planets are here in question; though this is unlikely, for they do not tally with the description given.]
35. So I Solomon questioned them one by one, beginning with the first, and going down to the seventh. The first said: “I am Deception, I deceive and weave snares here and there. I whet and excite heresies. But I have an angel who frustrates me, Lamechalal.” [25]
36. Likewise also the second said: “I am Strife, strife of strifes. I bring timbers, stones, hangers, my weapons on the spot. But I have an angel who frustrates me, Baruchiachel.”
37. Likewise also the third said: “I am called Klothod, which is Battle, and I cause the well-behaved to scatter and fall foul one of the other. [Fabricius, Cod. Pseudepigr. V.T. vol. I, p. 1047, reads Klothon, which must be i.q. Kludun, which Hesychius explains thus: …] And why do I say so much? I have an angel that frustrates me: “Marmarath.”
38. Likewise also the fourth said: “I cause men to forget their sobriety and moderation. I part them and split them into parties; for Strife follows me hand in hand. I rend the husband from the sharer of his bed, and children from parents, and brothers from sisters. But why tell so much to my despite? I have an angel that frustrates me, the great Balthial.”
39. Likewise also the fifth said: “I am Power. By power I raise up tyrants and tear down kings. To all rebels I furnish power. I have an angel that frustrates me, Asteraôth.” [D: Asteraoth. Cp. 1Kgs 11:5. -JHP]
40. Likewise also the sixth said: “I am Error, O King Solomon. [Cp. Testam. of Symeon, ch. 3.] And I will make thee to err, as I have before made thee to err, when I caused thee to slay thy own brother. [See I Kings ii. 25.] I will lead you into error, so as to pry into graves [A reference to necromancy, of which the object was to oblige the spirit of the dead to enter oneself.]; and I teach them that dig, and I lead errant souls away from all piety, and many other evil traits are mine. But I have an angel that frustrates me, Uriel.”
41. Likewise also the seventh said: “I am the worst, and I make thee worse off than thou wast; because I will impose the bonds of Artemis. But the locust will set me free [This refers to the closing incident narrated in the Testament, the sacrificing by Solomon of five locusts to Moloch. Tatian, Orat. ad Graecos, cap. 12, peaks of Artemis magos. She is the same as Hecate.], for by means thereof is it fated that thou shalt achieve my desire . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. For if one were wise, he would not turn his
steps toward me.”
42. So I Solomon, having heard and wondered, sealed them with my ring; and since they were so considerable, I bade them dig the foundations of the Temple of God. For the length of it was 250 cubits.
And I bade them be industrious, and with one murmur of joint protest they began to perform the tasks enjoined. [26]
43. 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.”
44. 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 crossways [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.] 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.”
45. 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-star [Or, “from the Orient.”].
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.”
46. 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.” [27] And I bowed myself before the Lord God of Israel, and bade him remain in the keeping of Beelzeboul until Iax should come. [Bornemann conjectures “a guardian or watcher.” But the angel Iax recurs below in # 86.]
47. 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 .. . .[The MS. has a vox nihili. Can it mean “her that is born of echo” (see above, p. 19, n.8).]? And I seize the frenzied men by the larynx, and so destroy them.”
48. 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.”
49. 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 huge [The text seems corrupt here.]; 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.
50. 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 Brieus.”