After the third day, he was introduced to the king; when measuring off four cubits upon the floor with the stick he held in his hand, he said to Solomon, “When thou diest, thou wilt not possess in this world (he referred to the grave) more than four cubits of earth.  Meanwhile thou has conquered the world, yet thou wert not satisfied until thou hadst overcome me also.”  To this the king quietly replied, “I want nothing of thee, but I wish to build the Temple and have need of the Shameer.”  To which Ashmedai at once answered, “The Shameer is not committed in charge to me, but to the Prince of the Sea, and he intrusts it to no one except to the great wild cock, and that upon an oath that he return it to him again.”  Whereupon Solomon asked, “And what does the wild cock do with the Shameer?” To which the demon replied, “He takes it to a barren rocky mountain, and by means of it he cleaves the mountain asunder, into the cleft of which, formed into a valley, he drops the seeds of various plants and trees, and thus the place becomes clothed with verdure and fit for habitation.”  This is the Shameer (Lev. xi. 19), Nagger Tura, which the Targum renders Mountain Splitter.

They therefore searched for the nest of the wild cock, which they found contained a young brood.  This they covered with a glass, that the bird might see its young, but not be able to get at them.  When accordingly the bird came and found his nest impenetrably glazed over, he went and fetched the Shameer.  Just as he was about to apply it to the glass in order to cut it, Solomon’s messenger gave a startling shout, and this so agitated the bird that he dropped the Shameer, and Solomon’s messenger caught it up and made off with it.  The cock thereupon went and strangled himself, because he was unable to keep the oath by which he had bound himself to return the Shameer.

Benaiah asked Ashmedai why, when he saw the blind man straying, he so promptly interfered to guide him?  “Because,” he replied, “it was proclaimed in heaven that that man was perfectly righteous, and that whosoever did him a good turn would earn a title to a place in the world of the future.”  “And when thou sawest the man overcome with wine wandering out of his way, why didst thou put him right again?” Ashmedai said, “Because it was made known in heaven that that man was thoroughly bad, and I have done him a good service that he might not lose all, but receive some good in the world that now is.”  “Well, and why didst thou weep when thou sawest the merry wedding-party pass?” “Because,” said he, “the bridegroom was fated to die within thirty days and the bride must needs wait thirteen years for her husband’s brother, who is now but an infant” (see Deut. xxv. 5-10).  “Why didst thou laugh so when the man ordered a pair of shoes that would last him seven years?” Ashmedai replied, “Because the man himself was not sure of living seven days.”  “And why,”