Testament of Solomon: How Did Solomon Command Demons?

A Greek magical book in which Solomon uses a sealed ring to summon demons, interrogate them, and put them to work building the Temple.

The Testament of Solomon is a Greek text in Solomon's voice, probably from the first to fourth centuries CE. The archangel Michael gives Solomon a sealed ring, and he uses it to question demons and set them to building the Temple.

The Testament of Solomon is a Greek text written in King Solomon's voice, probably between the first and fourth centuries CE. It opens with a problem on the Temple building site: a demon named Ornias is draining the strength of a favorite young worker, taking half his food and wages and sucking his thumb. Solomon prays, and the archangel Michael brings him a small ring with an engraved seal that gives him power over all demons.

The rest of the book is an interrogation log. Solomon summons demon after demon, including Beelzebul and Asmodeus. Each must reveal its name, what harm it does, and the angel or word that defeats it. Thirty-six demons of the decans, spirits of the divisions of the zodiac, each name the illness they cause and the charm that stops it. Solomon sets them to cutting stone, carrying water and building the Temple.

Ornias explains one of the book's strangest ideas: demons fly up to the firmament and listen to the decisions of heaven, and having nowhere to rest, they fall exhausted, and people see them as falling stars. The Quran and later Islamic tradition have a similar picture of jinn eavesdropping at the sky and being driven off by shooting stars. The book ends with Solomon's fall. He loves a foreign woman, sacrifices locusts to foreign gods, and loses his power. F. C. Conybeare published an English translation in 1898.