Note 199 — CHAPTER THREE.

Solomon’s wisdom and happiness have become proverbial; and the fable of the rabbins and the heroic and erotic poems of the Persians and Arabians speak of him, as the romantic traditions of the Normans and Britons do of King Arthur, as a fabulous monarch, whose natural science, (mentioned even in the Bible,) whose wise sayings and dark riddles, whose power and magnificence are attributed to magic. According to these fictions Solomon’s ring was the talisman of his wisdom and power.—Ency. Amer., Art. Solomon.