“By means of this stone,” said the angel, “thou shalt have dominion over the whole world of spirits, which is far greater than that of men and beasts, and occupies the space between earth and heaven. One portion of the spirits is faithful, and praises the One only God; the other portion is unfaithful: some adore fire, others the sun, others worship the planets, many revere winter. The good spirits surround the true believers among men, and protect them from all evil; the evil spirits seek to injure them and deceive them.”
Solomon asked to see the Jinns in their natural and original shape. The angel shot like a column of flame into heaven, and shortly returned with the Satans and Jinns in great hosts: and Solomon, though he had power over them, shuddered with disgust at their loathsome appearance. He saw men’s heads attached to the necks of horses, whose feet were those of an ass; the wings of an eagle attached to the hump of a dromedary; the horns of a gazelle on the head of a peacock.[[659]]
2. HOW SOLOMON FEASTED ALL FLESH.
When Solomon returned home, he placed the four stones, which the angels had given him, in a ring, so that he might at any moment exercise his authority over the realms of spirits and beasts, the earth, the winds, and the sea.
His first care was to subject the Jinns. He made them all appear before him, with the exception of the mighty Sachr, who kept himself in concealment on an unknown island in the ocean, and the great Eblis, the master of all evil spirits, to whom God had promised complete liberty till the day of the last Judgment.
When all the demons were assembled, Solomon pressed his seal upon their necks, to mark them as his slaves. Then he commanded all the male Jinns to collect every sort of material for the construction of the temple he was about to build. He bade also the female Jinns cook, bake, wash, weave, and carry water; and what they made he distributed amongst the poor. The meats they cooked were placed on tables, which covered an area of four square miles; and daily thirty thousand portions of beef, as many portions of mutton, and very many birds and fishes were devoured. The Jinns and devils sat at iron tables, the poor at tables of wood, the heads of the people at silver tables, the wise and pious at tables of gold; and these latter were served by Solomon in person.
One day, when all spirits, men, beasts, and birds rose satisfied from the tables, Solomon besought God to permit him to feed to the full all created animals at once. God replied that he demanded an impossibility. “But,” said he, “try, to-morrow, what thou canst do to satisfy the dwellers in the sea.”
On the morrow, accordingly, Solomon bade the Jinns lade a hundred thousand camels and the same number of mules with corn, and lead them to the sea-shore. He then cried to the fishes and said: “Come, ye dwellers in the water, eat and be satisfied!”
Then came all manner of fishes to the surface of the water, and Solomon cast the corn to them, and they ate and were satisfied, and dived out of sight. But all at once a whale lifted his head above the surface, and it was like a mountain. Solomon bade the spirits pour one sack of corn after another down the throat of the monster, till all the store was exhausted, there remained not a single grain. But the whale cried, “Feed me, Solomon! feed me! never have I suffered from hunger as I have this day!”
Solomon asked the whale if there were any more in the deep like him. The fish answered: “There are of my race as many as a thousand kinds, and the smallest is so large that thou wouldst seem in its belly to be but a sand-grain in the desert.”