Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/360

338 After some weeks, when Solomon was pacing his terrace before his palace, he saw a Jinn flying, swifter than the wind, from the direction of Hidjr, and he asked, "What news of Sachr?"

"Sachr lies drunk on the edge of the fountain," said the Jinn; "and we have bound him with chains as thick as the pillars of the temple; nevertheless, he will snap them as the hair of a maiden, when he wakes from his drunken sleep."

Solomon instantly mounted the winged Jinn and bade him transport him to the well at Hidjr. In less than an hour he stood beside the intoxicated demon. He was not a moment too soon, for the fumes of the wine were passing off, and, if Sachr had opened his eyes, Solomon would have been unable to constrain him. But now he pressed his signet upon the nape of his neck: Sachr uttered a cry so that the earth rocked on its foundations.

"Fear not," said Solomon, "mighty Jinn; I will restore thee to liberty if thou wilt tell me how I may without noise cut and shape the hardest metals."

"I myself know no means," answered the demon; "but the raven can tell thee how to do this. Take the eggs out of the raven's nest and place a crystal cover upon them, and thou shalt see how the raven will break it."

Solomon followed the advice of Sachr. A raven came, and fluttered some time round the cover, and seeing that she could not reach her eggs, she vanished, and returned shortly with a stone in her beak, named Samur or Schamir; and no sooner had she touched the crystal therewith, than it clave asunder.

"Whence hast thou this stone?" asked Solomon of the raven.

"It comes from a mountain in the far west," replied the bird.

Solomon commanded a Jinn to follow the raven to the mountain, and to bring him more of these stones. Then he released Sachr as he had promised. When the chains were taken off him, he uttered a loud cry of joy, which, in Solomon's ears, bore an ominous sound as of mocking laughter.

When the Jinn returned with the stone Schamir, Solomon mounted a Jinn and was borne back to Jerusalem, where he distributed the stones amongst the Jinns, and they were able to cut the rocks for the temple without noise.