Note 9 — Chapter II

Note 9. I read "Ṣakhr el-Jinnee" for "Ṣakhr el-Jinn."—Ṣakhr was an evil Jinnee, and a terrible enemy of Solomon. His last act of treachery to that monarch, and his fate, are thus related by commentators on the Ḳur-án.—Solomon having, through negligence, suffered one of his women to practise idolatry under his roof, God saw fit to punish him. It was the custom of this King, on certain occasions, "to intrust his signet, on which his kingdom depended, with a concubine of his, named El-Emeeneh. One day, therefore, when she had the ring in her custody, a devil [or evil Jinnee], named Ṣakhr, came to her in the shape of Solomon, and received the ring from her; by virtue of which he became possessed of the kingdom, and sat on the throne in the shape which he had borrowed, making what alterations in the law he pleased. Solomon, in the meantime, being changed in his outward appearance, and known to none of his subjects, was obliged to wander about, and beg alms for his subsistence; till at length, after the space of forty days, which was the time the image had been worshipped in his house, the devil flew away, and threw the signet into the sea. The signet was immediately swallowed by a fish, which being taken and given to Solomon, he found the ring in its belly; and having by this means recovered the kingdom, he took Ṣakhr, and, tying a great stone to his neck, threw him into the Lake of Tiberias."150