lend him his signet-ring.  The king’s passion for magical knowledge overcame his prudence, and he handed his ring to the fiend, thereby depriving himself of all power over his captive, who immediately swallowed the monarch, and stretching out his wings, flew up into the air, and shot out his “inside passenger” four hundred leagues distant from Jerusalem!  Ashmedai then assumed the form of Solomon, and sat on his throne.  Meanwhile Solomon was become a wanderer on the face of the earth, and it was then that he said (as it is written in the book of Ecclesiasticus i, 3):  “This is the reward of all my labour”; which word this, one learned Rabbi affirms to have reference to Solomon’s walking-staff, and another commentator, to his ragged coat; for the poor monarch went begging from door to door, and in every town he entered he always cried aloud:  “I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem!” But the people all thought him insane.  At length, in the course of his wanderings, he reached Jerusalem, where he cried, as usual:  “I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem!” and as he never varied in his recital, certain wise counsellors, reflecting that a fool is not constant in his tale, resolved to ascertain, if possible, whether the poor beggar was really King Solomon.  With this object they assembled, and taking the mendicant with them, they gave him the magical ring and led him into the throne-room.[78] Ashmedai no sooner caught sight of his old master than he shrieked wildly and flew away; and Solomon resumed his mild and beneficent rule over the people of Israel.  The Rabbis add, that ever afterwards, even to his dying day, Solomon was afraid of the prince of devils, and could not go to sleep without having his bed surrounded by an armed guard, as it is written in the Book of Canticles, iii, 7, 8.

   [77] According to the Muslim legend, eight angels appeared
        before Solomon in a vision, saying that Allah had sent
        them to surrender to him power over them and the eight
        winds which were at their command.  The chief of the
        angels then presented him with a jewel bearing the
        inscription:  “To Allah belong greatness and might.” 
        Solomon had merely to raise this stone towards the
        heavens and these angels would appear, to serve him. 
        Four other angels next appeared, lords of all creatures
        living on the earth and in the waters.  The angel
        representing the kingdom of birds gave him a jewel on
        which were inscribed the words:  “All created things
        praise the Lord.”  Then came an angel who gave him a
        jewel conferring on the possessor power over earth and
        sea, having inscribed on it:  “Heaven and earth are
        servants of Allah.”  Lastly, another angel appeared and
        presented him with a jewel bearing these words (the
        formula of the Muslim Confession of Faith):  “There