Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/375

XXXVIII.] him with attention, she exclaimed, "This is not the king! Solomon is in the judgment-hall; thou art an impostor, an evil spirit who has assumed his shape for evil purposes."

Then Solomon was driven, at her cry, from the palace, and every one treated him as a fool or rogue. He begged from door to door, saying, "I, Solomon, was king in Jerusalem!" but the people mocked him. For three years he was an outcast, because he had transgressed three precepts of the Law—"The king set over thee . . . shall not multiply horses to himself . . . neither shall he multiply wives to himself; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold." And this is what befell him in that time. He went into the land of the Ammonites, and there he fell into great want; but the master cook of the king's house took him to serve as scullion in the kitchen. After he had served for some time, he one day cooked some meats for the king; and when the king tasted the meats Solomon had baked, he was well pleased, and sent for Solomon and asked him if he would be his head cook.

Then Solomon consented, and the king of the Ammonites dismissed the master cook, and placed Solomon in his room, and Solomon excelled greatly in cooking, and pleased the king more and more with the variety and excellence of his dishes every day.

Now it fell out that Naama, daughter of the king, saw Solomon from day to day, and she conceived an ardent passion for him, and she went to her mother and said, "I shall die of love, unless I am given the head cook to husband."

The queen was astonished and ashamed, and said, "There are kings and princes and nobles in Ammon; take to you which you will." But Naama answered, "I will have none save the head cook."

Then the queen went and told the king, and he was exceeding wrath, and would have slain both Solomon and Naama; but when the first fury of his anger was cooled down, he bade one of his servants take them, both Solomon and Naama, and conduct them into the desert, and there leave them to perish. The command of the king was executed, and Solomon and