Seal of Solomon: How Did King Solomon's Ring Control Demons?

A signet ring from heaven that let Solomon bind demons and set them to work building the Temple.

The Seal of Solomon is a legendary signet ring that let Solomon bind demons and set them to work on the Temple. The Hebrew Bible never mentions it; the legend grew from the 1st century CE onward.

The Bible credits Solomon with wisdom, not magic. By the 1st century CE, though, he had a reputation as a master of spirits. Josephus describes a Jewish exorcist named Eleazar who, before the future emperor Vespasian, drew a demon out of a possessed man through the nose using a ring holding a root prescribed by Solomon, and made the demon knock over a basin of water to prove it had left.

The Testament of Solomon, a Greek text from the early centuries CE, makes the ring the center of the story. The archangel Michael gives it to Solomon, saying: "With it thou shalt lock up all demons of the earth, male and female; and with their help thou shalt build up Jerusalem." The engraving on the ring is a pentalpha, a five-pointed star. Solomon uses it to summon demon after demon, make each give its name and powers, and put them to cutting stone.

The Talmud (Gittin 68a–b) has a related story. Solomon captures the demon king Ashmedai with a chain and ring engraved with the divine name, to learn how to cut stones for the Temple without iron. Ashmedai later tricks him into handing over the ring and throws him far away, ruling in his place. Islamic tradition tells a similar tale of a demon who steals the ring and sits on Solomon's throne until the ring is found in the belly of a fish.

Over time the seal was drawn as either a pentagram or a hexagram. The hexagram form, associated with Solomon in medieval Arabic and Jewish magic, later merged with the Star of David, and a pentagram representing the seal still appears on the flag of Morocco. In the Thousand and One Nights, jinn are found sealed in brass bottles stoppered with Solomon's seal.