The Pillars of Three Faiths: Tanakh, Bible & Qu'ran. Various Authors

Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all Solomon's delight which he was pleased to do, ²that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared unto him at Gibeon. ³And the Lord said unto him: 'I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before Me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put My name there for ever; and Mine eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually. ⁴And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before Me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep My statutes and Mine ordinances; ⁵then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom over Israel for ever; according as I promised to David thy father, saying: There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. ⁶But if ye shall turn away from following Me, ye or your children, and not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; ⁷then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for My name, will I cast out of My sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a by word among all peoples; ⁸and this house which is so high [shall become desolate], and every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and when they shall say: Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and to this house? ⁹they shall be answered: Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them; therefore hath the Lord brought all this evil upon them.'

      ¹⁰And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king's house—¹¹now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar-trees and cypress-trees, and with gold, according to all his desire—that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. ¹²And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him: and they pleased him not. ¹³And he said: 'What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother?' And they were called the land of Cabul, unto this day. ¹⁴And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.

      ¹⁵And this is the account of the levy which king Solomon raised; to build the house of the Lord, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer. ¹⁶Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a portion unto his daughter, Solomon's wife. ¹⁷And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the nether, ¹⁸and Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land, ¹⁹and all the store-cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. ²⁰All the people that were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel; ²¹even their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able utterly to destroy, of them did Solomon raise a levy of bondservants, unto this day. ²²But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondservants; but they were the men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen.

      ²³These were the chief officers that were over Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, who bore rule over the people that wrought in the work.

      ²⁴But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which [Solomon] had built for her; then did he build Millo.

      ²⁵And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt-offerings and peace-offerings upon the altar which he built unto the Lord, offering thereby, upon the altar that was before the Lord. So he finished the house.

      ²⁶And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. ²⁷And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. ²⁸And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.

      10And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon because of the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. ²And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bore spices and gold very much, and precious stones; and when she was come to Solomon, she spoke with him of all that was in her heart. ³And Solomon told her all her questions; there was not any thing hid from the king which he told her not. ⁴And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, ⁵and the food of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his burnt-offering which he offered in the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. ⁶And she said to the king: 'It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom. ⁷Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it; and, behold, the half was not told me; thou hast wisdom and prosperity exceeding the fame which I heard. ⁸Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, that stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. ⁹Blessed be the Lord thy God, who delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel; because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore made He thee king, to do justice and righteousness.' ¹⁰And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones; there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon. ¹¹And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of sandal-wood and precious stones. ¹²And the king made of the sandal-wood pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king's house, harps also and psalteries for the singers; there came no such sandal-wood, nor was seen, unto this day. ¹³And king Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned, and went to her own land, she and her servants.

      ¹⁴Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold, ¹⁵beside that which came of the merchants, and of the traffic of the traders, and of all the kings of the mingled people and of the governors of the country. ¹⁶And king Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of gold went to one target. ¹⁷And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold: three pounds of gold went to one shield; and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

      ¹⁸Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the finest gold. ¹⁹There were six steps to the throne, and the top of the throne was round behind; and there were arms on either side by the place of the seat, and two lions standing beside the arms. ²⁰And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps; there was not the like made in any kingdom.

      ²¹And all king Solomon's drinking-vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver; it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon. ²²For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram; once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

      ²³So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. ²⁴And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. ²⁵And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.

      ²⁶And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen; and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, that he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem. ²⁷And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycamore-trees that are in the Lowland, for abundance. ²⁸And the horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt; also out of Keveh, the king's merchants buying them of the men of Keveh at a price. ²⁹And a chariot came up and went out