Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/165

 SOLOMON. 147

Targum on the Book of Esther, 1 thus: "To him were obedient demons of the most diverse sorts, and the evil spirits were given into his hand." This legend is derived primarily from a mistaken interpretation of a passage in Ecclesiastes. 2 Muhammad relates the following tale : 3 H On one occasion the lapwing 4 was not found in attend- ance on Solomon, and the King regarding him as a truant threatened to kill him. Then the lapwing came with the news that he had discovered a land as yet unknown to Solomon, which was not subject to him, the land of Sheba, in which the people together with the Queen worshipped the sun. Solomon sent the bird back with a letter summon- ing these people to adopt the belief in the Unity of God. He himself went thither at once with his troops, and had the Queen's throne brought to him by a ministering angel. The Queen had been already converted, and she came into Solomon's camp ; he had her brought before him into a hall, of which the flooring was glass, and she imagining it to be water, exposed her legs." This same story is to be found in the Targum 5 already referred to, together with some other circumstances which I shall omit here. The story runs as follows : " Thereupon the partridge was sought and not found among the birds, and the King commanded angrily that it should be fetched, and he wanted to kill it. Then the partridge answered the King : ' My lord and King, attend and hear my words, for three months I considered and flew about the whole world to find the town where thou wast not obeyed. Then I saw a town in the East called Kitor, where there are many

1 On Esther, i. 2.

rnvT] prn. J^BI -d^ fro^En. nb

8 Ecclesiastes, ii. 8.

3 Sura XXVII. 20-46. 4

5 Second Targum on the Book of Esther,