is no
        God but the God, and Muhammed is his messenger.”  This
        jewel gave Solomon power over the spirit-world.  Solomon
        caused these four jewels to be set in a ring, and the
        first use to which he applied its magical power was to
        subdue the demons and genii.—­It is perhaps hardly
        necessary to remark here, with reference to the
        fundamental doctrine of Islam, said to have been
        engraved on the fourth jewel of Solomon’s ring, that
        according to the Kuran, David, Solomon, and all the
        Biblical patriarchs and prophets were good Muslims, for
        Muhammed did not profess to introduce a new religion,
        but simply to restore the original and only true faith,
        which had become corrupt.

   [78] We are not told here how the demon came to part with
        this safeguard of his power.  The Muslim form of the
        legend, as will be seen presently, is much more
        consistent, and corresponds generally with another
        rabbinical version, which follows the present one.

Another account informs us that the demon, having cajoled Solomon out of possession of his magic ring, at once flung it into the sea and cast the king 400 miles away.  Solomon came to a place called Mash Kerim, where he was made chief cook in the palace of the king of Ammon, whose daughter, called Naama, became enamoured of him, and they eloped to a far distant country.  As Naama was one day preparing a fish for broiling, she found Solomon’s ring in its stomach, which, of course, enabled him to recover his kingdom and to imprison the demon in a copper vessel, which he cast into the Lake of Tiberias.[79]

   [79] According to the Muslim version, Solomon’s temporary
        degradation was in punishment for his taking as a
        concubine the daughter of an idolatrous king whom he had
        vanquished in battle, and, through her influence, bowing
        himself to “strange gods.”  Before going to the bath, one
        day, he gave this heathen beauty his signet to take care
        of, and in his absence the rebellious genie Sakhr,
        assuming the form of Solomon, obtained the ring.  The
        king was driven forth and Sakhr ruled (or rather,
        misruled) in his stead; till the wise men of the palace,
        suspecting him to be a demon, began to read the Book of
        the Law in his presence, whereupon he flew away and cast
        the signet into the sea.  In the meantime Solomon hired
        himself to some fishermen in a distant country, his
        wages being two fishes each day.  He finds his signet in
        the maw of one of the fish, and so forth.

It may appear strange to some readers that the Rabbis should represent the sagacious Solomon in the character of a practitioner of the Black Art.  But the circumstance simply indicates that Solomon’s acquirements in scientific knowledge were considerably beyond those of most men of his age; and, as in the case of our own Friar Bacon, his superior attainments were popularly attributed to magical arts.  Nature, it need hardly be remarked, is the only school of magic, and men of science are the true magicians.