The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this and said unto him,
'Since you have asked for wisdom and not for long life or wealth or for the death your enemies I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart such as no one else has had or ever will!'"
1 Kings 3:6-12
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| It's a freakin King Solomon teddy bear! Look at his adorable scales! It's like he's judging whether to hug you or snuggle you! (source: http://www.sunny-bears.com/inv/hermann+spielwaren/king-solomon-teddy-bear-19514-4.php) |
Did you know that Solomon, known as Suleiman in the Quran, had a giant flying carpet, could communicate with animals, and knew how to control the djinn to do his bidding? THAT IS SO COOL. And so I present to you two Solomons. One proposes to chop babies in half to settle small court claims, the other flies around the Middle East essentially accompanied by genies. How many other world leaders can claim to be that awesome?
None. None leaders.
MP3 Download
Music Credits
Michael Levy - Shalom Chavarim
Resources
The many paintings of The Judgment of Solomon
Raphael
Valentin de Boulogne
Rubens (love the anachronistic dress!)
Giorgione (holding court outside? eh, whatever)
Dore
The complete Kebra Nagast - Amazing!!
An incredible depiction of the inner sanctum of Solomon's temple - note they didn't include the purple veil though.
Solomon's temple from the side
3D viewpoint complete with surrounding wall and courtyard
Another viewpoint of the temple
I have to say, I have NO idea what any of this means...but it was so interesting to me that I had to include it.
Evidence of Solomon's wall?
Solomon's Throne
The Queen of Sheba
Surprised to see a white Queen of Sheba? Curious as to why artists throughout the ages would make an Ethiopian queen pretty darn pale? Don't read too much into it, anachronism is fairly rampant in early art. There's no malicious intentions here, just a very narrow world view.
http://www.bonzasheila.com/art/archives/jun09/29.html
http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/70005862
Without knowing these two are Solomon and the Queen, one could be forgiven for assuming they're some English lord and lady. Again, in 1500 Strasbourg, Germany, I don't think they were deliberately imposing racism into their works. These people barely knew the value of soap, let alone the importance of ethnographic sensitivities.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Horse-sheba.jpg
Here we go! From an Ethiopian fresco, the Queen rides off with what is assumed to be St. George behind her. Note the clear Ethiopian/Southwest Arabian features. If you want to know what she probably looked like, here she is in all her stately beauty. Stunning!
