Seal of Solomon

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In Medieval Jewish, Islamic and Christian legends, the Seal of Solomon was a magical signet ring said to have been possessed by King Solomon, which variously gave him the power to command demons (or jinni), or to speak with animals. In one of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, an evil djinn is described as being imprisoned in a copper bottle for 1,800 years by a lead seal stamped by the ring. Other, later books (Pseudomonarchia Daemonum) manage to fit far more demons in the bottle.

One simple form of the Seal

In some versions of the story, the ring was made of brass and iron, carved with the Name of God, and set with four jewels. In later versions the ring simply bore the symbol now called the Star of David (hexagram), often within a circle, usually with the two triangles interlaced (hence chiral) rather than intersecting. Often the gaps are filled with dots or other symbols. Other versions have it as a pentagram or other more complicated figures. Works on demonology typically depict the pattern of the seal as being two concentric circles, with a number of mystical sigils between the inner and outer circles, and various more-or-less complex geometric shapes within the inner circle.

In one Arabic story [1] it is claimed that the demon Sakhr deceived one of Solomon's wives into giving him the ring. Sakhr then ruled in his stead for forty days (or years, in some versions) while Solomon wandered the country in poverty. However eventually Sakhr threw the ring into the sea, where it was swallowed by a fish, caught by a fisherman, and served to Solomon. As punishment Sakhr was made to build a great mosque for Solomon.

However the earliest of such stories is dated to more than a thousand years after the time of Solomon, and the story of the fish, in particular, bears a strong resemblance to Herodotus' tale of Polycrates.

A new theory about what was actually the Seal of Solomon is to be found in the French book "Le Sceau de Salomon, secret perdu de la Bible" (The Seal of Solomon, lost key of the Bible) by Janik Pilet. According to him, it was a source for holy inspiration used by several authors of the Old and New Testaments, and its drawing is described in the first text in the Holy Bible i.e. the creation in six days. See [2] .

1 Alchemy
2 Use on National Flags
3 See also
4 External links

In alchemy, the combination of the fire and water symbols (up and down triangles) is known as the Seal of Solomon. The symbol is representative of the combination of opposites and transmutation.

These national flags illustrate different representations of the Seal of Solomon. The Flag of Morocco uses the pentagram while the Flag of Israel uses the Star of David hexagram.