“Save a thief from the gallows and he’ll help to hang thee.”

Also,

“Many a one leads a hungry life,

And yet must needs wed a wife.”

In Chaucer’s “Melibæus” there are ten proverbs ascribed to Solomon which are not in the Bible. But generally it is Solomon the magician who has interested the poets. In the old work, “Salomon and Saturn,” the wise man informs Saturn that the most potent of all talismans is the Bible:

“Golden is the Word of God,

Stored with gems;

It hath silver leaves;

Each one can,

Through spiritual grace