Solomon and the daughter of the ruler
Solomon and the daughter of the ruler
The prophet Solomon (Sulaiman) received news of a large kingdom on a distant island. The ruler of that country was very rich and powerful. Having gathered a huge army, consisting of djinns and people, the prophet of the Almighty ﷻ arrived in this country to call its people to faith in the One God.
The ruler of the island tried to resist but was killed and his army was defeated. He had a daughter named Jaradah. Sulaiman decided to call her to faith in the One God. She submitted and believed but without much desire.
Jaradah was very beautiful and graceful, people had never seen anyone like her before. Soon Sulaiman took her as his wife. He loved her more than other wives and she occupied a special place in his heart.
However, Jaradah was not happy with her situation. Tears did not dry in her eyes and she was always upset about something. Noticing this, the prophet Sulaiman reacted, “Woe to you! What is this sadness and tears that do not dry up?” - “I remember my father and his kingdom and I begin to feel sad,” answered his wife. “Allah ﷻ has replaced what was before with a better kingdom. He has guided you to the true path. And this is better than any kingdom”, Sulaiman told her. But this did not calm the woman down and she began to ask, “It is so but when I remember, sadness comes again. If you had ordered the shaitans (djinns) to carve an image of my father and put it in my house, I would have been able to see it morning and evening. And perhaps my sadness would have gone away.”
The Prophet fulfilled her request and ordered the shaitans to make a statue in the image of her father. As soon as the statue was brought into the house, Jaradah dressed it in clothes similar to her father’s attire. She also placed a crown on it. As soon as Sulaiman left the house, she would approach the statue and bow to it. This went on for forty days. The Prophet was unaware of this all this time.
Prophet Sulaiman had a friend named Asif, who would not leave his house day or night, regardless of whether Sulaiman was there or not. He heard that Jaradah was worshiping a statue and he decided to tell his friend about it. One day he came to the Prophet and said, “O Prophet of Allah ﷻ! I have grown old, my bones have become weak and the time of my death is approaching. But before I die, I want to go and tell people the stories of the previous prophets. I want to exalt them and tell people what they do not know about them.”
Sulaiman gave him permission to do this and gathered the people in one place for this. Asif stood in front of them and began to tell them about the prophets of the Almighty Creator. He praised them and spoke in detail about the features bestowed on them by the Almighty and so on, until it was the turn of Sulaiman. About him, he talked only about his childhood. And then he left.
Sulaiman was overcome with anger. “O Asif!” he exclaimed. “You spoke about the prophets of Allah and spoke well of them, listing their virtues. Why did you only speak about me in my childhood? Why did you remain silent of the time after that? What happened that I do not know about?” Asif replied to his friend “In your house, a woman worships an idol other than Allah ﷻ. She has been prostrating herself before it for forty days now”. “In my house?!” Sulaiman reacted in surprised. Asif answered in the affirmative, and the Prophet said the words that are uttered when troubles and trials are sent down (meaning), “Verily, we are from Allah, the Most High, and to Him is our return. I know that you have not said anything except what has reached you.”
Sulaiman entered his house, broke the idol and punished his wife along with the maids. Then, at his command, clean clothes were brought. He put them on and went out into the desert. Sulaiman stayed there for a long time, praying to the Almighty for forgiveness, and only then returned home.
But the story did not end there. The prophet had a wife who became the mother of his child. He trusted her very much. According to another version, she was his maid. When the Prophet returned home after repentance, he left his ring with her, which he never took off except when he went to the toilet. The person who wore this ring had control over everything and when he took it off, he lost this power. It is also reported that this ring was one of the things that our forefather Adam took with him when the Almighty sent him from Paradise to earth. On it was written: “There is no god but Allah ﷻ, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.” This time, as soon as Sulaiman went to his needs, a shaitan named Sahr al-Marid approached her in the form of Sulaiman. He took the ring from her, climbed onto his throne and began to rule, violating the laws of religion. People, djinn and birds were subordinate to him. When Sulaiman returned for his ring, his appearance had changed. “Who are you?” his wife asked. “I am Sulaiman,” he replied, “You are not Sulaiman, you are lying! Sulaiman came and took the ring from me. He is now sitting on the throne,” his wife angrily replied.
The prophet realized that this was a test sent to him by the Almighty. He realized that without the ring he was nothing. Saddened, he left the palace and began to wander the streets, saying: “I am Sulaiman ”. People, considering him insane, began to throw earth at him. The prophet left the city and went to the sea. There he met fishermen and asked to be their assistant. The payment for his work was two fish. He sold one of them and bought bread with the proceeds. And the other he fried and ate. This continued for forty days.
After some time, Asif and other nobles began to condemn the actions of the ruler. They realized that this was not Sulaiman. Asif addressed the people, “O Banu Israel! Do you see the contradictions in the ruler’s decisions that I see?” - “Yes!” they replied. Asif said, “Give me some time, I will go to his wives and ask them if they condemn the same things that we do.”
Asif did so. The wives of Sulaiman told him many things, which only confirmed his suspicions. He told the people of what he had learned. Then the shaitan, who was sitting on the throne, realised that everyone had already guessed that he was an impostor. He left control of the government and fled. And, flying over the sea, he threw away the ring that belonged to Sulaiman.
Here another miracle of the Almighty occurred. The ring was swallowed by a fish. A fisherman caught it and, without realizing what it was, gave it to Sulaiman as payment for his work. The Prophet cut it up to cook and eat it and unexpectedly, inside it was that very ring. He put it on his finger and fell prostrate before Almighty Allah.
Thus, the Lord deprived him of the kingdom exactly so long as the idol was secretly worshiped in his house. After that, everything returned to its place. Sulaiman punished that shaitan for his deception and returned to his rule.
