The figure of Solomon in the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa': from Jewish legend to Islamic tales (original) (raw)

King Solomon is, as is well known, an important protagonist of Jewish literature, both canonical and extra-canonical. We witness a slow literary evolution of the character, who, starting from the old-testamentary references, slowly takes on the status of magician and exorcist. In the first centuries AD this transformation is consolidated, as we can see from the Testament of Solomon, from a passage in Flavius Josephus, and from the long series of magical amulets in which Solomon is represented on horseback while piercing a female demon. These amulets originate in relation to the seal of Solomon, the magical ring quoted in the Testament, through which Solomon takes control of the demons. He uses these demons, properly chained, to be assisted in the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem. The demons are locked up and sealed inside amphorae. This tradition will give rise to the Islamic legend of the genius in the lamp, at the service of its master. In the West this tradition will give rise to a vast magic literature placed under the aegis of Solomon. These are often real grimoires, that, in imitation of the Testament of Solomon, list angels, demons and magic words to chain them. Tradition that flows into the history of Faust. In the Islamic world, while on one hand the character of Solomon appears in the Qur'an, his tradition is well present in all pre and post-Koranic literature. In the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa' (the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, an esoterical society that arose within Ismailism, probably around the 10th century) there is a large section dedicated to Solomon, in which the Judeo-Christian tradition of the master of the demons is resumed, but a metaliterary critique of this tradition is also made. The last example of Solomon in this oriental tradition will be the story of Kipling "The Butterfly that Stamped".