Though the chief magnificence of Solomon was lavished on the Temple of God, yet the sumptuous palaces which he erected for his own residence display an opulence and profusion which may vie with the older monarchs of Egypt or Assyria.  The great palace stood in Jerusalem; it occupied thirteen years in building.  A causeway bridged the deep ravine, and leading directly to the Temple, united the part either of Acra or Sion, on which the palace stood, with Mount Moriah.

In this palace was a vast hall for public business, from its cedar pillars called the House of the Forest of Lebanon.  It was 175 feet long, half that measurement in width, above 50 feet high; four rows of cedar columns supported a roof made of beams of the same wood; there were three rows of windows on each side facing each other.  Besides this great hall, there were two others, called porches, of smaller dimensions, in one of which the throne of justice was placed.  The harem, or women’s apartments, adjoined to these buildings; with other piles of vast extent for different purposes, particularly, if we may credit Josephus, a great banqueting hall.

The same author informs us that the whole was surrounded with spacious and luxuriant gardens, and adds a less credible fact, ornamented with sculptures and paintings.  Another palace was built in a romantic part of the country in the valleys at the foot of Lebanon for his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt; in the luxurious gardens of which we may lay the scene of that poetical epithalamium,[31] or collection of Idyls, the Song of Solomon.[32] The splendid works of Solomon were not confined to royal magnificence and display; they condescended to usefulness.  To Solomon are traced at least the first channels and courses of the natural and artificial water supply which has always enabled Jerusalem to maintain its thousands of worshippers at different periods, and to endure long and obstinate sieges.[33]

[Footnote 31:  I here assume that the Song of Solomon was an epithalamium.  I enter not into the interminable controversy as to the literal or allegorical or spiritual meaning of this poem, nor into that of its age.  A very particular though succinct account of all these theories, ancient and modern, may be found in a work by Dr. Ginsberg.  I confess that Dr. Ginsberg’s theory, which is rather tinged with the virtuous sentimentality of the modern novel, seems to me singularly out of harmony with the Oriental and ancient character of the poem.  It is adopted, however, though modified, by M. Renan.]

[Footnote 32:  According to Ewald, the ivory tower in this poem was raised in one of these beautiful “pleasances,” in the Anti-Libanus, looking toward Hamath.]

[Footnote 33:  Ewald:  Geschichte, iii., pp. 62-68; a very remarkable and valuable passage.]

The descriptions in the Greek writers of the Persian courts in Susa and Ecbatana; the tales of the early travellers in the East about the kings of Samarcand or Cathay; and even the imagination of the Oriental romancers and poets, have scarcely conceived a more splendid pageant than Solomon, seated on his throne of ivory, receiving the homage of distant princes who came to admire his magnificence, and put to the test his noted wisdom.[34] This throne was of pure ivory, covered with gold; six steps led up to the seat, and on each side of the steps stood twelve lions.