SOLOMON, properly Sulaiman or Suliman, the son of David, was king over the Judah and Benjamin tribes of the Hebrews or Israelites. He is famed in history for building the temple of Jerusalem, for his g,reat wisdom and great wealth. He began to build the temple B.C. 1014. Ile founded Harnath, in the country of Galilee, an l fortified Tadmor or Palmyra in the wilderness, and many other cities of store (1 Kings ix. 18 ; 2 Chronicles viii. 4), or emporia,' for the com merce of India, and Tyre, Sidon, and all the surrounding nations. IIis father had introduced the custom of a vast polygamy, which Solomon continued. His commercial transactions extended down the Red Sea and the Euphrates valley, to India and the Aurea Chersonesus.
A port of departure and arrival was Ezion geber (1 Kings ix. 26) on the banl:s of the Euphrates, the Hasn Jabir of the Arabs, also called Kalat Jabir or .Castle Jabir, of whith the vast ruins still exist not far from the ancient Roman town of Beles. Catafago says the trans
lation ought to he, ` And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, besides that of Moth.' The modern Arab name of Tadmor or Palmyra is Sulaymaniyah. Solomon is fabled to havo been king not only of men, but of the angels, genii, elements, beasts, and birds, and they have many traditions as to the queen of Sheba. Solomon's pools are three large reservoirs built on tbe slope of a hill about 7 miles S. from Jerusalem. Solo mon's temple in Jerusalem wzis dedicated to Baal, and all the idolaters of that day seem to have held to the grosser tenets of modern Hinduism— Peor his other name, when be enticed Israel in Sitthn, on their march from Nile.' Solomon's temple, of Kashmir, stands on the summit of a hill to the east of Srinuggur city. Its height is 6263 feet above the level of the sea.— Arrian, Periplus, p. 152; Pennant's Hindustan, p. 4 . Tod's Rajasthan, i. p. 76 ; Paradise Lost, Book