Note 181 — Chapter VI

One of the numerous legends told by Muslims regarding Solomon reappears in the Turkish story-book entitled Qirq vezír taríkhí, where we read that the sage Hebrew king despatched the símurgh—a fabulous bird, similar to the rukh (or roc) of Arabian fictions—to bring the sparrow to his court. But the sparrow, being then with his mate, refused to obey the prophet, or his messenger, and vaunted his prowess and strength, declaring that he was able to pull down Solomon’s palace. When the símurgh reported this to Solomon he replied: “There is no harm in one thus bragging in his own house, and before his wife.”—See Gibb’s Forty Vezírs, p. 97 ff.