Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sources

by S. Baring-Gould

[661]. The story of the building of the temple, with the assistance of Schamir, has been already related by me in my “Curious Myths of the Middle Ages.”

[662]. The Rabbinic story and the Mussulman are precisely the same, with the difference that Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, instead of the Jinns, lies in ambush and captures Sachr or Aschmedai (Asmodeus). (Eisenmenger, i. 351-8.) As I have given the Jewish version in my “Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,” I give the Arab story here.

[663]. Weil, pp. 234-7; Talmud, Tract. Gittin. fol. 68, cols. 1, 2.

[664]. Jalkut Schimoni, fol. 90, col. 4.

[665]. Tabari, i. p. 435.

[666]. Tabari, i. p. 436.

[667]. Koran, Sura xxvii.; Tabari, i. c. xcviii.; Weil, pp. 237-9.

[668]. The Jews also believed in a purgatory; see Bartolocci, i. 342.

[669]. Targum Scheni Esther, fol. 401, tells the same of the moorcock.

[670]. This is the letter according to Rabbinic authors: “Greeting to thee and to thine; from me, King Solomon. It is known to thee that the holy, ever-blessed God has made me lord and king over the wild beasts and birds of heaven, and over the devils, and spirits, and ghosts of the night, and that all kings, from the rising to the down-setting of the sun, come and greet me. If thou also wilt come and salute me, then will I show thee great honour above all the kings that lie prostrate before me. But if thou wilt not come, and wilt not salute me, then will I send kings, and soldiers, and horsemen against thee. And if thou sayest in thine heart, ‘Hath King Solomon kings, and soldiers, and horsemen?’ then know that the wild beasts are his kings, and soldiers, and horsemen. And if thou sayest, ‘What, then, are his horsemen?’ know that the birds of heaven are his horsemen. His army are ghosts, and devils, and spectres of the night; and they shall torment and slay you at night in your beds, and the wild beasts will rend you in the fields, and the birds will tear the flesh off you.” This letter, the Jews say, was sent to the Queen of Sheba by a moorcock. (Targum Scheni Esther, fol. 401, 440.)