The Book of King Solomon

1 Professor Solomonis the author of How toFind Lost Objects, Japan in a Nutshell,How to Make the Most of a Flying SaucerExperience, andConey resides life of king Solomon , writtenby his court historian! Such, apparently, were the contents ofan old Hebrew manuscript, handed ontoProfessor Solomon by an brittle pages were filled with thestory of the king : his youth, his rivalsfor the throne, his accomplishmentsas ruler, his wise judgments, histhousand wives, his visits to the Caveof the Ages, his magic ring, his asso-ciation with Asmodeus, his building ofthe Temple, his speaking with birds,his encounter with Goliath, Jr., hismeeting with the Queen of Sheba,his excursions on a flying carpet, hiswandering as a beggar, his BOOK OF king Solomon fact or fiction? An ancientchronicle or a latter-day fabrication?

2 A sensational find or aliterary hoax?Whateverthe case, it is an engaging book highly recommendedto anyone wanting to learn more about the wisest of men, hisplace in history, and his relevance today.. The Book ofKing Solomonby Ahimaaz, Court HistorianDiscovered, Translated, and Annotated byProfessor SolomonIllustrated by Steve SolomonTop Hat Press Copyright 2005 by Top Hat PressAll rights reservedISBN 0-912509-09-0 Translator s Note .. 3. Messenger .. 4. Prophet .. 5. Thou Art the Man! .. 6. Psalm .. 7. Tavern Talk .. 8. A Son Is Born .. of the Ages .. 10. Birthday .. Takes a Break .. 13. Lie Detector .. 14. Egg .. 15. Jar of Honey .. 16. Gad .. 17. An Altar Is Raised .. from the Roof.. 19. Whoa! .. 20. Successor .. 21. On the Mount.. Name .. 25. Heat .. iii26. A king Is Crowned.. 27. Deathbed.

3 28. Visitors .. 29. Gibeon .. 30. Tutmosa.. of the Kingdom .. 32. Ring .. 33. Manual .. 34. Trying It Out.. 35. Model .. 36. Shamir.. 37. Asmodeus .. 38. king Meets king .. 41. Dream .. 42. Dedication .. 43. Donor .. 45. Disputed Infant .. 46. Double Trouble .. 47. Suing the Wind.. Door Testifies .. 49. Goliath, Jr.. 50. Wisdom .. s Complaint .. of Sheba.. 53. Flying Carpet .. 54. Mysterious Palace .. 55. Chinese Food .. 57. Shlomo .. 58. Ahijah .. of the Future .. Solution .. iv v61. Arctic Visit .. 62. Menelik .. 63. Retirement .. 64. Demise .. viAunt RoseWhen she pushed aside a stack of newspapers and opened herbread box, I assumed that Aunt Rose was about to offer me a stalepastry. Instead, she extracted a bundle of brittle sheets of paper,tied with string. The topmost sheet was inscribed with Hebrewlettering.

4 Stored in her bread box had been some sort of manu-script. I ve wondered what to do with this, she said, and thrust itinto my aunt of mine whom I was meeting for the first time was actually a great-aunt: the widow of one of my grandfather sbrothers. I was visiting Los Angeles; and my father aware of myinterest in the family s European past had suggested that I lookher up. Hungarian-born Rose, he had pointed out, might havesome lore or anecdotes to recount. I had been warned, however,that she was kooky. Upon the death of her husband, for exam-ple, she had shipped Sam Solomon s clothing, dentures, Masonicring, and taxi-driver license to my father. Also, she had a Yiddish-speaking parrot. When I heard about the parrot, I knew I had tovisit Aunt Rose lived in Venice Beach, a member of its dwindlingcommunity of elderly Jews. I had telephoned, explaining who Iwas and asking if I might drop by.

5 After an initial hesitation, shehad given me directions to her apartment, a few blocks from thebeach. Knock loudly, she had instructed me, so as to be heardover the television. Thatafternoon I arrived and knocked. The door was openedby a short, gray-haired woman in a jogging suit. Peering at methrough thick lenses, she remarked (with a faint accent) upon myresemblance to my father; decided I was who I claimed to be;and invited me in. The tiny apartment into which I stepped wascluttered with clothing, magazines, shopping bags and indisarray. Nonetheless, it had a cozy air. I was told to sit down atthe kitchen table. As I sat, a voice called out: Nu? ( So? ) Aunt Rose gestured toward a cage and introduced me to herYiddish-speaking parrot. Turning off the television, she made mea cup of tea (from a used tea-bag); and a congenial conversationTranslator s Noteviiensued.

6 I filled her in on the doings of various relatives, anddescribed my own efforts as a writer. And she bent my ear witha litany of complaints about the hippies who had invaded thebeach; the forces of gentrification that were driving out longtimeresidents like herself; the personality of the new rabbi at her I told her of my interest in the European past of the Solo-mons, and asked if she could tell me anything about Chamalyev,the mountain village from which the family had emigrated. AuntRose waved dismissively, as if at a foolish question. She had beenborn in a different part of Hungary, she told me. It wasn t untilcoming to America that she had met Sam. Wu is der zhlub? ( Where is that jerk? ) squawked the parrotat the mention of his name. Suddenly Aunt Rose recalled something. Her late husband, shesaid, had brought over from Chamalyev some old Hebrew writ-ings papers of some sort that had been handed down in theSolomon family.

7 Sam had been determined to preserve thesepapers. Would I be interested in seeing them? When I said Iwould, she thought for a moment, seeking to remember whereshe had stored them. Then she went over to the bread box, pulledout the manuscript, and handed it to me. I had time for only aquick glance. Stick that in your knapsack, she said. It belongs to you now. We spoke for a while longer. Then she had me stand on a chair viiiand change the bulb in a ceiling fixture. Finally I promised toconvey her greetings to my father and others. And I was headingfor the door when the parrot spoke again this time repeating aproverb: Es is shver zu sein ein Yid. It s hard to be a Jew, the bird had week later, in the quiet of my study, I turned my attentionto this bundle consisted of sheets of paper. Brittle and dis-colored with age, they were crumbling at the edges.

8 The paperwas low-grade rag, with no watermark to indicate its origin. Each sheet (except for the title page) contained two columns oftext. The text was in Hebrew, handwritten with standard squareletters. The ink had faded somewhat. As for the penmanship, itwas meticulous and seemed to have been performed with a and there, a correction or addition had been interpolatedin the title page consisted of two lines:[sefer ha-melekh shelomohakhimaatz mazkir malkhuti]which translates to by Ahimaaz, Court HistorianBeneath these lines was the stylized image of a crown. Andinscribed at the top of the page in a different ink and hand was a name I recognized. It was that of my great-grandfather,Haskal Shlomovitz (the family name having yet to be Angli-cized). Apparently, he had put his mark of ownership on text was divided into chapters, each with a brief was written in classical Hebrew (which narrows the date of ixcomposition to within the last three thousand years).

9 And it toldthe story of our family s namesake. Here was an account of thelife of king Solomon , in unprecedented I read through it, I was fascinated by this document that hadwound up in a bread box in Los Angeles. But I was also it fact or fiction, I wondered? Were its origins ancient ormodern? What were the sources of its information?And who, I wondered, was its author?AhimaazAuthorship of is explicitly cred-ited to Ahimaaz, Court Historian. Moreover, this same Ahi-maaz appears in the story. He plays a part in the struggle withAbsalom; and on several occasions he discusses with Solomon thechronicle he is to the Bible, we do find an Ahimaaz in the court of KingSolomon but there is no indication of his being a historian. Heis presented rather as the resourceful son of Zadok, the HighPriest. The Biblical Ahimaaz helps defeat Absalom; eventuallymarries a daughter of Solomon ; and is appointed governor ofNaphtali.

10 A certain Jehoshaphat, meanwhile, is mentioned aschronicler during the reign of for post-Biblical references to Ahimaaz, I have been able tofind only one. In Maria T. Richards published a collectionof sketches entitledLife in book (written, she insists, with a careful regard to historical and chronological accuracy )contains the following account: A large company of distinguished Israelites were gathered [forthe dedication of the Temple] in the court of Ahimaaz, one of themost eminent of the citizens of Jerusalem, a chief counsellor inthe court of Solomon , and the son of Zadok, the high priest house of Ahimaaz was situated near the eastern browof Mount Zion, within a furlong s distance of the city wall, andafforded an extended view of Jerusalem and her conducted his guests to the house-top, and the conversa-tion immediately fell upon such subjects as dwelt that nightupon every tongue throughout all Israel.