King Solomon Seals & Amulets

King Solomon was ancient Israel's third and greatest king. The third son of King David and his wife Bathsheba, Solomon was born approximately in the year 990 BCE and died around 928 BCE. He came to the throne following his older brother Adonijah declaring himself as king, which was against his father's wishes. Solomon had many opponents to deal with during his first months on the throne but finally was able to overcome his opponents and wound up ruling the Throne of Israel for 40 years.

From early on, King Solomon was known for his wisdom and ability to engage in a number of building feats and territorial expansion that saw his empire spread east as far as the Tigress river. One of his earliest feats of diplomacy involved the story of two women who both claimed the same baby as theirs. Solomon told the women they would each accept half a dead child, and while the first woman consented out of jealousy, the second woman said she would rather lose the baby than see it cut in half. Upon hearing their answers, King Solomon awarded the baby to the second woman, who had hereby shown true motherly care. To this day, the tale demonstrates the king's great wisdom.

King Solomon was also a writer of poems and songs. Three biblical works, The Song of Songs, the Book of Proverbs, and the Book of Ecclesiastics may all have been written by this great man. Perhaps Solomon's greatest feat was the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, as instructed by God. Solomon enlisted the assistance of King Hiram of Tyre who sent Solomon the cedar wood and other materials used in the construction of the inner parts of the Temple including the "innermost chamber" that became known as the Holy of Holies. Hiram also loaned his chief building architect, Hiram Abiff, who had been one of the founders of the fraternal society known as Ancient Freemasonry - versions of it carry on to this day.

Solomon had a love for fine horses as well as beautiful possessions, including women. It is said that he had as many as 14,000 horses, 1,000 wives, and at least half that many concubines. He often cemented relations with other kingdoms by marrying one of the foreign king's daughters. The story of King Solomon's love affair with the Queen of Sheba is one of the more well known romantic tales; and she is said to have inspired him to write the Song of Songs. Sheba, an Ethiopian, is said to be the ancestor of the Ethiopian Empire; and that country's last emperor, Hailee Salassie I, was known as the Lion of Judah.

Solomon brought many exotic animals and plants from afar and these adorned his personal palaces in Jerusalem, Megiddo, and other locations. Much of the copper his kingdom used -- in order to make both decorative objects and weapons of war -- came from mines in the Timna Valley of the Arava desert, located in the vicinity of the modern city of Eilat. These mines are said to be the legendary King Solomon's Mines, although more mines may had been located in the Sinai Peninsula and even in Africa.

Although his long reign was largely tranquil, he began to cause dissent among his own people due to the use of slave labor in his building projects and by personal favoritism in appointments to government offices. His preference for those of his own tribe of Judah and that of the tribe of Benjamin caused many problems during his later years. He also levied heavy taxation upon the people to finance his projects.

Upon his death, his empire was broken up and the Kingdom of Israel became engaged in civil war during the reign of his son, Rehoboam I. This resulted in the formation of both a northern and southern kingdom -- both being eventually overthrown years later by the Assyrian and Babylonian armies, respectively.