Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/377

XXXVIII.] the king of Ammon. And when the king came, he was filled with astonishment, and wondered how his daughter had escaped from the desert and had found favour with the greatest of monarchs. Then said Solomon, "See! I was thy head-cook, and this is thy daughter; bid her come to thee and kiss thee." Then the king of Ammon kissed his daughter, and returned, glad of heart, to his own land.

9. THE DEATH OF SOLOMON.

When Solomon had recovered his throne, he reigned twenty years. His whole reign was forty years, and he lived in all fifty-five years. He spent these years in prosecuting the building of the temple. Towards the end of his life he often visited the temple, and remained there one or two months plunged in prayer, without leaving it. He took his nourishments in the temple. He even remained a year thus; and when he was standing, with bowed head, in a humble attitude before God, no one ventured to approach him, man or Jinn; if a Jinn drew near, fire fell from heaven and consumed him.

In the garden of Solomon grew every day an unknown tree. Solomon asked it, "What is thy name, and what are thy virtues?" And the tree answered him, "I am called such and such, and I serve such a purpose, either by my fruits, or by my shadow, or by my fragrance."

Then Solomon transplanted it elsewhere; and if it were a tree with medicinal properties, he wrote in books the kinds of remedies for which it served. One day Solomon saw in his garden a new tree, and he asked it, "What is thy name, and what purpose dost thou serve?"

The tree replied, "I serve for the destruction of the temple. Make of me a staff, whereon to lean."

Solomon said, "None can destroy the temple as long as I am alive." Then he understood that the tree warned him that he must shortly die. He pulled up the tree, and of it he made a staff, and, when he prayed, he leaned on this staff to keep himself upright.

Solomon knew that the temple was not completed, and that if he died, and the Jinns knew of it, they would leave off