Chroniclers and historians inform us that the daughter of Hanana, and relict of Aoria’, gave birth to Sulimân after the repentance of Dâud had been accepted. Even in his infancy, and when he had begun to grow, the signs of prosperity and dominion radiated from his august forehead. The indications of a sincere and virtuous disposition, as well as of beauty and amenity of form, also manifested themselves. Even before Sulimân had attained the age of maturity, Dâud consulted him in all matters. At that time, also, several wonderful manifestations were revealed in the person of Sulimân, which convinced Dâud that he would soon be raised to the culminating point of prophetic and royal dignity, and his high degree of intelligence will appear also from the following narrative:
Dâud had appointed an individual to be chief judge and to regulate the affairs of his subjects. On a certain occasion a handsome woman, who had no equal in beauty and affability, waited upon the judge with the intention of obtaining some property which she claimed from a man. The judge was so charmed with her beauty that when she returned to her house, he sent a person after her to offer her a matrimonial alliance with himself; the modest woman, however, refused, saying she did not wish to marry. Thereon the unrighteous judge desired to commit adultery with her, but she intimated to the messenger that she was far from willing to consent to so base an act. After the said virtuous lady had thus been disappointed with the chief judge, she brought her case to the notice of the superintendent of the police; but the result was the same as with the judge. Thereupon she petitioned the commissioner of the public markets; but he also entertained lascivious designs, and at last she proffered her claims to the chamberlain of Dâud, but was equally disappointed, because he harboured the same intentions as the above-mentioned functionaries. Being unable to open the door [of attaining her wishes] by moving any of these rings [i.e., officials], she renounced her claim and took refuge in solitude. It happened that on a certain occasion the said judge and those three voluptuaries met to discuss all kinds of matters with each other, and at last their conversation having turned on the above woman, her continence and independence prompted them to concoct a plan for bringing about her ruin, which consisted in an agreement to accuse her of having had carnal intercourse with a dog. They accordingly waited upon Dâud and stated the [concocted] case with much eagerness. The king was, in conformity with the Mosaic Law, bound to issue orders for the stoning of that innocent woman; Sulimân, however, who had heard this decision, immediately left the hall of assembly, joined his playmates, and those whose duty it was to take care of him. He sat down and despatched a man in pursuit of the people who were to stone the woman, instructing them to delay the execution of the sentence. Then he ordered one of the children to sit down in the same way as that woman had been sitting in the presence of Dâud; he also instructed four children to bear testimony in the same manner as the four false witnesses had done against the said virtuous lady. After having received the evidence of the four children, he separated them from each other, and asked each of them separately what the colour of that dog was? The first witness said that it was black. He sent him to a corner, and addressed the same question to the second, who replied that it was red. He separately examined also the third and the fourth boy, and found them likewise to be of different opinions concerning the colour of the dog. Then he addressed them as follows: ‘O ye wicked and lascivious men! You wished to deceive me in order to get an innocent woman stoned.’ Then he said to the other children: ‘Kill those false witnesses!’ At that moment one of the attendants reported to Dâud everything that had just taken place. His lordship thereon summoned the false witnesses to his presence, and after separately examining them about the colour of the dog, and finding them to disagree, he ordered them to be punished according to their deserts.
On another occasion two women, each of whom had an infant, went to a washing-place in the desert, and neglected their children [whilst engaged in washing] so that one of them was devoured by a wolf. The women began to quarrel about the surviving infant, and each of them wanted to keep it for herself, asserting it to be her own child. At last they brought their case to the notice of Dâud, who adjudged—on account of the want of evidence, or witnesses—the child to belong to both women. When the two contending parties left the judgment-hall they perceived Sulimân, who looked at them and said: ‘How did the prophet of Allah decide your case?’ One of the women having mentioned the decision, Sulimân asked for a sword, and took hold also of the child. The women asked: ‘What wilt thou do with this infant?’ He replied: ‘I shall cut it in twain, and shall give one half to each of you.’ One of the two women agreed to the division; the other, however, began to lament, and said: ‘Give the child to the other woman, for I shall not agree to this proposal.’ Sulimân continued: ‘The child belongs to the woman who weeps, and does not like to see it halved.’* When this decision was reported to Dâud, he was astonished at the intelligence of his sagacious son.
Once Dâud and Sulimân were travelling, and happened to meet a community in which there was a child called ‘the son of blood.’ Dâud inquired about the original name of the child, but was told that he had no other name besides this; then Sulimân said to his father: ‘O prophet of Allah, I shall inquire about the circumstances of this boy.’ Dâud assented, and when they had returned among the people, Sulimân instituted inquiries among them, but elicited only the fact that the boy had been so named by the orders of his father. After still further inquiries, the people confessed that when the boy’s father was about to die of wounds which he had received, he had made his last will, and told his pregnant wife, in case she should give birth to a son, to name him ‘the son of blood,’ or if a female, ‘the daughter of blood.’ After Sulimân had informed Dâud of the evidence thus obtained, his lordship caused all the property of the killed man, which had been forcibly retained, to be restored to the boy, and the murderers to be punished as they deserved.
One of the decisions of Sulimân, according to which Dâud acted, was the command he issued with reference to Yohanna and Ailia. The case was, that two individuals lived in each other’s neighbourhood, one of whom was called Yohanna and the other Ailia. It happened that one night the sheep of Yohanna had suddenly entered the fields of Ailia, and had committed depredations therein. Allah —w. n. b. e.—has said: ‘And [remember] Dâud and Sulimân, when they pronounced judgment concerning a field, when the sheep [of certain people] had fed therein by night, having no shepherd.’* When it was daylight, Ailia summoned Yohanna to the presence of Dâud, and accused him of having permitted his sheep to cause damage in the above-named field by leaving them without a shepherd. After Yohanna had been found guilty, Dâud ordered the damage as well as the price of the sheep to be estimated, and decided that Yohanna should take possession of the entire harvest, in return for which and for the injury done he was to surrender the sheep to Ailia. When the two contending parties left the judgment-hall, Sulimân asked them how their dispute had ended. They informed him, and he said: ‘The prophet of God has awarded a just sentence; but if I had been judge between you, I would have given a decision satisfactory to both parties.’ These words having been reported to Dâud, he called for his beloved son, and questioned him about the matter. Sulimân, however, respectfully abstained from giving an opinion; but said, after being much pressed: ‘The sheep ought to be given to the possessor of the field that he may profit by them, and the field to the possessor of the sheep until he restores it to its former condition, whereon Ailia may again take possession of his field and Yohanna of his sheep.’ Dâud agreed to this decision, and said: ‘May God not deprive thee of wisdom, O my son, and may He augment thy understanding.’ The two disputants then returned pleased and thankful, acting in conformity with the decision of Sulimân to which Dâud had assented.
It is related that when the Lord Sulimân had received his mission, he besought the Possessor of Dominion to grant him a kingdom the like of which should fall to the lot of no other sovereign after him. When this prayer had been responded to, the Lord, who giveth power to whom He pleaseth, and who taketh it away from whom He listeth, subjected men and genii, animals and birds, to the command of Sulimân, and even the wind obeyed his behests. After Sulimân had been established on the throne of absolute dominion, he ordered the Satans to weave a carpet, equal in extent to the space whereon his army was encamped. When he desired to travel, he caused the throne with all the appurtenances of the royal household to be transferred to the said carpet, on which also the whole army was standing in battle-array. Then he ordered the wind to take up the carpet and to convey it to the desired place. Allah—w. n. b. e.—has said: ‘It ran at his command to the land whereon we had bestowed [our] blessing.’* The wind thereon passed over the sown fields [gently] and did not injure [the harvests upon] them. Some have related that, when the Lord Sulimân started in the morning from Syria, he ate his dinner at Estakhar in Persia, after which he travelled to Kâbul, where he arrived at supper-time.
There is a variety of opinions about the length and breadth of Sulimân’s kingdom. Some are of opinion that he possessed the whole earth, it being on record in histories that four kings governed the entire world, two of whom were believers and two infidels; the former having been Zulqarneen and Sulimân, and the latter Nimrud and Bakhtanasar. Some allege that Sulimân was in the beginning king of Syria, to which he afterwards added the realm of Persia.