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55. How the People of Ethiopia Rejoiced
Introduction
Solomon that his Lady Zion had been carried off, and that it would be better for him now to worship the gods of her fathers; but for a time he refused to forsake the God of Israel. One day, however, overcome by her beauty he promised to do whatsoever she wished. Thereupon she tied a scarlet thread across the door of her gods, and she placed three locusts in the house of her gods. Then she called upon Solomon to enter without breaking the thread, and to kill the locusts and “pull out their necks.” In some way, which I cannot explain, in doing this Solomon performed an act of worship of the Egyptian gods, and Mâ˚shârâ was content; besides this, to enter into an Egyptian temple was an offence against the God of Israel (Chaps. 64, 65). In spite of his weakness and sin, Solomon is regarded in some respects as a type of Christ, and as he committed no sin like that of his father David in the matter of the murder of Uriah, he is enumerated with the Patriarchs (Chap. 66).
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When Solomon was sixty years of age he fell sick, and the Angel of Death drew nigh to him, and he wept and prayed for mercy (Chap. 67). And the Angel of God came to him and rebuked him for his excessive love of women and for marrying alien women. In a long speech the Angel refers to Solomon’s three sons, i.e. David and Rehoboam and ≤Adrâmî, his son by a Greek slave, and then he shows him how Joseph, and Moses, and Joshua, were types of Christ, and how Christ should spring from Solomon’s seed and redeem mankind. In Chap. 68 the Angel prophesies concerning the Virgin Mary, and narrates to Solomon the history of the Pearl which passed from the body of Adam to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Perez, Jesse, David, Solomon, Rehoboam, and Joachim, who passed it into the body of ©anna, the mother of the Virgin Mary. Finally, the Angel told Solomon that Michael would remain with the Tabernacle in Ethiopia, and he (Gabriel) with Rehoboam, and Uriel with ≤Adrâmî. And Solomon gave thanks to God, and asked the Angel when the
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