Home > Stories of the Prophets > Sulayman ibn Dawud (peace be upon them)
The story of Sulayman ibn Dawud (peace be upon them) in the Quran and the Islamic tradition: verses, hadiths and the views of the exegetes, faithfully translated from Arabic.
Updated on 06 September 2026 at 3:41 AM
He is Sulayman ibn Dawud ibn Iycha ibn Ouyd ibn Ba'az ibn Salmoun ibn Nahchoun ibn Amiinadhab ibn Iram ibn Hassaroun ibn Fariss ibn Yahouda ibn Ya'qoub ibn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim: the father of springtime, a prophet of Allah, son of a prophet of Allah.
It is related in some athars that he entered Damascus riding the furnished saddle. His genealogy is mentioned nearly as Ibn Asakir mentioned it. Sulayman inherited from Dawud:
« And Sulayman inherited Dawud. And he said: O people, we have been taught the language of birds, and we have been given of all things: this is indeed the evident favor. »
Surat an-Naml, 16
He inherited from him prophethood and kingship. The inheritance of wealth is not intended: for he had other sons, and he would not then be singled out with wealth to their exclusion. And it has been established, by routes, from a group of Companions, that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « We, the prophets, do not inherit: what we leave behind is charity. » The truthful, the confirmed, has therefore informed that the wealth of the prophets is not inherited after them as the wealth of others is, but their wealth is, after their death, charity for the poor and the destitute: they do not reserve it for their relatives: for this world was lighter to them and more contemptible in their eyes than that, as it is with the One who sent them, chose them and favored them. « We have been taught the language of birds » means that Sulayman (peace be upon him) knew what the birds communicated to one another in their languages, and would explain to the people their aims and intentions.
The hafiz Abu Abdallah informed us: Ali ibn Hamchad informed us: Isma'il ibn Qutayba narrated to us: Ali ibn Qudama narrated to us: Abu Ja'far al-Usouanni, that is Muhammad ibn Abd ar-Rahman, narrated to us, from Ya'qoub al-Qoummi: Abu Malik narrated to me: Sulayman ibn Dawud passed by a male bird circling around a female: « Do you know what he says? » « And what does he say, O prophet of Allah? » He said: « He is courting her for himself: marry me to her: I will lodge you in whichever houses of Damascus you wish. » Sulayman said: « The houses of Damascus are built upon rock: no one can dwell in them: every suitor is a liar. » Ibn Asakir related it, from Abu al-Qasim Zahir ibn Tahir, from al-Bayhaqi. « And we have been given of all things »: of everything a king needs: numbers, instruments, soldiers, armies, groups of jinn and humans, birds, wild beasts, roaming devils, sciences, understandings, interpretation of the minds of creatures, speaking and mute. « This is indeed the evident favor »: from the Creator of creatures and the Creator of the earth and the heavens.
« And there were gathered for Sulayman his armies of jinn and humans and birds, and they were distributed. Until, when they came upon the valley of the ants, an ant said: O ants, enter your dwellings, lest Sulayman and his armies crush you while they perceive not. So he smiled, laughing at her speech, and said: My Lord, enable me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to do righteousness of which You approve, and admit me by Your mercy among Your righteous servants. »
Surat an-Naml, 17-19
The Most High informs of His servant, His prophet and the son of His prophet, Sulayman ibn Dawud (peace be upon them both), that he rode one day with his entire army of jinn, humans and birds: the jinn and the humans marched with him, and the birds flew with him, shading him with their wings from the heat and more; and each of these three armies had overseers, that is, guides who turned the first back upon the last: no one advanced beyond the place in which he marched nor lagged behind it, until, when they came upon the valley of the ants, an ant said: O ants, enter your dwellings, lest Sulayman and his armies crush you while they perceive not: she commanded, warned, and apologized for Sulayman and his army by their not perceiving. Wahb mentioned that he passed, riding upon the carpet, by a valley at Ta'if; and that the name of this ant was such-and-such, and that she was of a tribe called Bani ach-Chaybane, and that she was one-eyed, and of the size of a wolf.
In all of this there is scrutiny: rather, this account is evidence that he was in his march riding among his horses and his horsemen, not upon the carpet as some have claimed: for had it been so, the ant would have suffered nothing from him nor any trampling: since the carpet carried all that they needed of armies, horses, camels, burdens, tents and livestock, and the birds above all of that, as we shall clarify after this, if Allah the Most High wills.
The point is that Sulayman (peace be upon him) understood that by which this ant addressed her community of the sound judgment and the praiseworthy command, and he smiled at it with gladness, joy and delight at what Allah had made known to him apart from others: and it is not what some of the ignorant say, that the beasts used to speak before Sulayman and address the people, until Sulayman ibn Dawud took from them the covenant and muzzled them, so that they did not speak with the people after that: none says this but those who do not know: for were it so, there would be no excellence for Sulayman in understanding their languages over anyone else: since all the people understood that; and were he to have taken from them the covenant not to speak to anyone but him, while he understood them, there would likewise be no benefit to rest upon.
« My Lord, enable me to be grateful »: that is: inspire me and guide me to be grateful for Your favor which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to do righteousness of which You approve, and admit me by Your mercy among Your righteous servants. He therefore asked Allah to appoint him to gratitude for what He had bestowed upon him, and for what He had favored him over others with, and to make righteous deed easy for him, and to gather him, when he died, with His righteous servants: and Allah the Most High answered him. His parents are Dawud (peace be upon him) and his mother: she was of the righteous worshippers, as Sunayd ibn Dawud said, from Youssouf ibn Muhammad ibn al-Mounkadir, from his father, from Jabir: the mother of Sulayman ibn Dawud said: my son, do not sleep much at night: for much sleeping at night leaves the servant poor on the Day of Resurrection. Ibn Majah related it from four of his sheikhs, in like manner.
And Abd ar-Razzaq said, from Ma'mar: Sulayman ibn Dawud (peace be upon him) went out with his companions seeking rain, and saw an ant standing, raising one of her legs, asking for rain: « Return: you will be given water: this ant has asked for rain and it was answered for her. » And it has been related raised to the Prophet, without mention of Sulayman. Then he cited it by the route of Muhammad ibn 'Aziz, from Salama ibn Rouh ibn Khalid, from 'Oqayl, from Ibn Chihab: Abu Salama narrated to me: a prophet went out with the people to ask Allah for rain, and there was an ant raising part of her legs: « Return: it has been answered for you because of this ant. » And as-Souddi said: drought struck the people in the time of Sulayman (peace be upon him): he commanded the people to go out, and there was an ant standing on her two legs: « O Allah, we are creatures of Your creation: we have no wealth to dispense with Your favor.
» Allah poured rain upon them.
He inspected the birds and said: « Why do I not see the hoopoe? Or is he among the absent? I will surely punish him with a severe punishment, or I will slaughter him, or he brings me a clear authority. But he did not remain long, and said: I have encompassed in knowledge what you have not encompassed, and I have come to you from Saba with certain news.
I found a woman ruling over them, and she has been given of all things, and she has a great throne. I found her and her people prostrating to the sun instead of Allah, and the devil has adorned for them their deeds and barred them from the way: so they are not guided, that they not prostrate to Allah who brings forth the hidden in the heavens and the earth and knows what you conceal and what you declare: Allah, there is no deity but He: Lord of the Great Throne. He said: we shall see whether you have told the truth or are of the liars. Take this letter of mine and cast it to them, then turn away from them and see what they return.
She said: O assembly, an honorable letter has been cast to me. It is from Sulayman, and it is in the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy: do not rise above me, but come to me in submission. She said: O assembly, advise me in my affair: I was never one to decide an affair until you witness for me. They said: we possess strength and we possess great violence: but the command is yours: so look what you command.
She said: kings, when they enter a town, corrupt it and make the most honored of its people the most abased: and thus they do. And I am sending to them a gift, and seeing with what the messengers return. When Sulayman came [the messenger], he said: Would you provide me with wealth? What Allah has given me is better than what He has given you: rather, it is you who rejoice in your gift.
Return to them: we shall surely come to them with armies they have no power to face, and we shall drive them out from there, humbled and debased. »
The Most High mentions what occurred of the affair of Sulayman and the hoopoe. The birds had, for every kind of them, those appointed who performed what was asked of them, and attended him in turns, as is the habit of armies with kings. And the duty of the hoopoe, as Ibn Abbas and others mentioned: when they lacked water in the wastelands during journeys, he would come and look for them whether there was water in those regions: and he had, of the strength Allah the Most High deposited in him, the seeing of water beneath the crust of the earth: when he guided them to it, they dug for it and drew it out and brought it up, and used it for their need. When Sulayman (peace be upon him) summoned him one day: where is the one missing from among you, or who has vanished from my sight without my seeing him in my presence?
« I will surely punish him with a severe punishment »: he threatened him with a kind of punishment in which the exegetes have differed: and the point is attained in every case. « Or I will slaughter him, or he brings me a clear authority »: that is, a proof that saves him from this predicament. « But he did not remain long »: the hoopoe was absent a short absence, then returned from it and said to Sulayman: « I have encompassed in knowledge what you have not encompassed »: that is: I have come to know what you did not come to know, « of truthful news ».
« I found a woman ruling over them, and she has been given of all things, and she has a great throne. » He mentions what the kings of Saba were, in the land of the Yemen, of great dominion and crowned Tubba's: and the kingship had passed, in that time, to a woman among them, the daughter of their king, who left no heir but her: so they crowned her over them. At-Tha'alibi and others mentioned that her people crowned after her father a man: corruption spread through him: she wrote to him asking him in marriage, and married him: when she entered upon him, she gave him wine to drink, then cut off his head and set it upon her door: the people turned to her and crowned her over them. She is Balqis, daughter of al-Bachrakh, who is al-Hadhadh: Charahil ibn dhou Jadane ibn al-Bachrakh ibn al-Harith ibn Qays ibn Sayfi ibn Saba ibn Yachjoub ibn Ya'roub ibn Qahtan.
Her father was of the great kings: he had married a woman of the jinn, named Rayhana daughter of ach-Chakr: she bore this woman, Balqis. At-Tha'alibi related, by the route of Sa'id ibn Bachir, from Qatada, from an-Nadr ibn Anas, from Bachir ibn Nahik, from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), that « one of the two parents of Balqis was of the jinn »: and this is a strange hadith, with weakness in its chain.
Abu Abdallah ibn Qahouna informed us: Abu Bakr ibn Jurja narrated to us: Ibn Abi al-Layth narrated to us: Abu Kourayb narrated to us: Abu Mou'awiya narrated to us, from Isma'il ibn Mouslim, from al-Hasan: Balqis was mentioned before the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): he said: « Never will a people succeed who make a woman their ruler. » Isma'il ibn Mouslim, he is al-Makki: weak.
It has been established in the Sahih of al-Bukhari, from the hadith of 'Awf, from al-Hasan, from Abu Bakra, that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), when it reached him that the people of Persia had made the daughter of Chosroes their ruler, said: « Never will a people succeed who make a woman their ruler. » At-Tirmidhi and an-Nasaï related it from the hadith of Humayd, from al-Hasan, from Abu Bakra, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): good and authentic. « And she has been given of all things »: of what makes the kings endow her. « And she has a great throne »: the seat of her kingdom, inlaid with all kinds of jewels, pearls, gold and resplendent ornaments. Then he mentions their disbelief in Allah and their worship of the sun instead of Allah: He who knows the secrets and the manifest, the sensed things and the realities: « Allah: there is no deity but He: Lord of the Great Throne »: to Him belongs the Great Throne, than which nothing among the creatures is greater.
Sulayman (peace be upon him) then sent with him his letter, containing his call to them to the obedience of Allah and His messenger: « Do not rise above me »: that is: do not grow arrogant against my obedience and the fulfilling of my commands, « and come to me in submission »: come to me hearing and obeying, without return or resistance. When the letter reached the queen with the bird: from that people took carrier pigeons: but where is the Pleiades relative to the dust? This letter was with a hearing, obedient bird, understanding, knowing what it says and what is said to it. More than one exegete and others mentioned that the hoopoe carried the letter, came to her palace, cast it to her while she was in her seclusion, then stood aside, awaiting what would come of her answer to the letter.
« It is from Sulayman », then she read it: « and it is in the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy: do not rise above me, and come to me in submission. » Then she consulted them about her affair and what had befallen her, with politeness toward them: « O assembly, advise me in my affair: I was never one to decide an affair until you witness for me »: meaning: I would never decide an affair but that you were present.
They said: « We possess strength and we possess great violence »: they meant: we have strength and power over fierceness and fighting and resisting heroes: if you want that of us, we are able for it; « but the command is yours: so look what you command »: they offered her hearing and obedience, informed her of what they had of ability, and entrusted to her that affair: that she might see in it what was best guided for her and for them: and her judgment was more complete and firmer than theirs: she knew that the possessor of this letter cannot be overcome, nor barred, nor opposed, nor deceived: « If this king should prevail over this dominion, the matter will not escape from among you except to me, and the intense fierceness and the penetrating assault will be only with me. And I am sending to them a gift, and seeing with what the messengers return.
» She wished to placate for herself and the people of her kingdom with the gift she would send and the presents she would dispatch, not knowing that Sulayman (peace be upon him) would not accept from them, in this situation, any diversion or justice: for they are disbelievers, and he and his armies are able over them: that is why, when [the messenger] came to Sulayman, he said: « Would you provide me with wealth? What Allah has given me is better than what He has given you: but it is you who rejoice in your gift. » Those gifts comprised great things, as the exegetes mentioned. Then he said to her messenger, and the delegation of Balqis that had arrived to him: « Return to them: we shall surely come to them with armies they have no power to face, and we shall drive them out from there, humbled and debased.
» He said: return with your gift, with which you came, to the one who deemed it a bounty: for I have with me, of what Allah has bestowed upon me and granted me of wealth, presents and men, what is manifold of this and better than this which you rejoice in and boast of before your kinsmen because of it. I shall send to them armies they cannot defend against, nor withstand, nor bar, nor fight, and I shall drive them out of their land, their domain, their administration and their state, humbled and debased: upon them abasement, disgrace and destruction. When that reached them from the prophet of Allah, they had no escape but hearing and obedience: so they hastened to answer him at that hour, and came all of them, in the company of the queen, hearing, obeying and submitting. When he heard of their coming to him and their arrival, he said to those before him of those subjugated to him of the jinn:
« O assembly, which of you will bring me her throne before they come to me in submission? An ifrit of the jinn said: I will bring it to you before you rise from your place: and I am strong for it, trustworthy. Said he who had knowledge of the Book: I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you. When he saw it settled before him, he said: this is from the favor of my Lord, to test me whether I am grateful or ungrateful: and whoever is grateful is grateful only for himself: and whoever disbelieves: my Lord is Rich, Noble.
He said: disguise her throne for her: we shall see whether she is guided, or is of those not guided. When she came, it was said: is this your throne? She said: it is as it were. And we were given knowledge before her, and we were in submission.
And what she worshipped besides Allah barred her: she was of a disbelieving people. It was said to her: enter the palace. When she saw it, she thought it a body of water, and uncovered her legs. He said: it is a palace smoothed of glass.
She said: my Lord, I have wronged myself, and I submit with Sulayman to Allah, Lord of the worlds. »
Surat an-Naml, 38-44
When Sulayman asked the jinn to bring him the throne of Balqis, which is the seat of her kingdom upon which she sat at the time of her judgment, before your session of judgment is concluded: the ifrit said: « I will bring it to you before you rise from your place: I am strong for it, trustworthy »: that is: I have strength to bring it to you, and trustworthiness regarding what is in it of precious jewels with you. « He who had knowledge of the Book »: the famous view is that he is Asif ibn Barkhiya: and he is the son of Sulayman's maternal aunt: he is a man of the believing jinn, who, as it is said, kept the Greatest Name; and it is said: a man of the Children of Israel, of their scholars; and it is said: he is Sulayman himself: and this is very strange: and as-Souhayli weakened it, in that it does not hold in the course of speech. And a fourth saying has been said about it: that he was Jibril.
« Before your glance returns to you » means: before you send a messenger to the farthest place your eye reaches, then it returns to you; before the farthest of people you see reaches you; before your glance wearies should you prolong looking; before your eyelid closes; before your glance returns to you when you look with it at the farthest reach from you then close it: and this is the nearest of what has been said. When he saw the throne of Balqis settled before him in this short span, from the land of the Yemen to Bayt al-Maqdis: « This is from the favor of Allah upon me and His favor upon His servants: to test them in gratitude or its contrary: the benefit of that returns only to me: Rich from the gratitude of the thankful, not harmed by the disbelief of the disbelievers. » Then Sulayman (peace be upon him) commanded that the ornament of this throne be changed and made unrecognizable to her: « Disguise it for her: we shall see whether she is guided, or is of those not guided. » When she came, it was said to her: is this your throne?
She said: it is as it were: and this was of her acuity and the abundance of her understanding: for she judged it improbable that it was her throne: since she had left it behind her in the land of the Yemen, and did not know that anyone was capable of this wondrous, strange feat.
« And we were given knowledge before her, and we were in submission. And what she worshipped besides Allah barred her: she was of a disbelieving people »: that is: the worship of the sun, before which she and her people prostrated instead of Allah, barred her, in imitation of the religion of their fathers and ancestors, with no proof leading them to that, nor guide directing them to it. Sulayman had commanded the building of a palace of glass, and had water flow in its passage, and placed above it a roof of glass, and put in it fish and other water creatures. The jinn wished to disturb her appearance before Sulayman, and that she uncover her legs, that he see what she had of hair: that would repel him from her; and they feared he would marry her: for her mother was of the jinn: she would then rule over them along with him.
Some mentioned that the hollow of her foot was like the hoof of a beast: and this is weak: and in the first view there is also scrutiny: and Allah knows best. When he wished to remove it, after resolving to marry her, he asked the humans about its removal: they mentioned to him certain practices: she refused that: he asked the jinn: they made for him the nura (the depilatory paste) and established for him the bath: and he was the first to enter the bath. At-Tabarani related it raised to the Prophet: and in it is scrutiny.
At-Tha'alibi and others mentioned that Sulayman, when he married her, established her over the kingdom of the Yemen and returned her to it: and he would visit her once every month: he would stay with her three days, then return upon the carpet: Ghoumdane, Salhine and Banyoune: and Allah knows better.
Ibn Ishaq related, from some people of knowledge, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, that Sulayman did not marry her: rather he married her to the king of Hamdan, established her over the kingdom of the Yemen, and subjugated Zoub'aba, king of the jinn of the Yemen: he built for her therefore the three palaces we mentioned in the Yemen: and the first is the most famous and most manifest: and Allah knows best.
The Most High said in sura Sad:
« And We gave to Dawud Sulayman: an excellent servant: indeed he was one who constantly turned back. When there were exhibited to him at evening the swift horses, he said: I loved the love of good over the remembrance of my Lord, until it was hidden behind the veil. Return it to me. And he began passing his hand over the legs and the necks.
And We had certainly tried Sulayman and placed upon his seat a body: then he turned back. He said: my Lord, forgive me, and grant me a dominion that does not befit anyone after me: You are the great Bestower. So We subjected to him the wind flowing by his command, gently, wherever it reached, and the devils, every builder and diver, and others, bound in fetters: This is Our gift: so bestow or withhold without account. And he has with Us indeed nearness and a good return.
»
Surat Sad, 30-40
The Most High mentions that He gave to Dawud Sulayman (peace be upon them): « an excellent servant: indeed he was one who constantly turned back »: that is: an obedient servant ever returning to Allah. Then the Most High mentions what was of his affair concerning the swift horses: and they are those that stand upon three feet and the tip of the hoof of the fourth. He said: « I loved the love of good over the remembrance of my Lord, until it was hidden behind the veil »: he means the sun. « Of good »: the horses, according to the two views we shall mention.
« And he began passing his hand over the legs and the necks »: he wiped the sweat from their legs and their necks: this is the view Ibn Jarir chose, and al-Walibi related it from Ibn Abbas. And Ibn Jarir directed this view by the fact that he would not punish the animal by slaughtering it, nor destroy wealth without cause or fault on its part: and what he said there requires scrutiny: for it could be permissible in their law and their religion. And some of our scholars held that, when the Muslims fear that the disbelievers will prevail over some of the animals, like sheep and the like, their slaughter and destruction are permissible, lest they gain strength by them: and upon this is carried the deed of Ja'far ibn Abi Talib the day he pierced his horse at his death. According to the other view, which is that of the majority of the first predecessors: he was occupied with the exhibition of those horses until the time of the asr had gone out and the sun had set.
This has been related from Ali ibn Abi Talib and others. And what settles it is that he did not neglect the prayer deliberately, without excuse: for it was permissible in their law to delay the prayer for the causes of jihad, among which the exhibition of horses. A group of the scholars claimed, regarding the delay of the asr prayer by the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) on the day of the Trench, that this was prescribed at that time, until it was superseded by the prayer of fear offered during battle: thus said ach-Chafi'i and others. Rather it is a ruling established to this day: it is permissible to delay it for the excuse of intense fighting, as we established in our Tafsir, at the mention of the prayer of fear prescribed in the verse: And when you are among them and lead them in prayer: and the delay of the asr prayer by the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) on the day of the Trench was a forgetting: and upon this the act of Sulayman (peace be upon him) is interpreted: and Allah knows best.
The pronoun in his saying: « he said: I loved the love of good over the remembrance of my Lord, until it was hidden behind the veil » returns to the horses: and no time of prayer escaped him. « Return it to me. And he began passing his hand over the legs and the necks »: that is: he wiped the sweat from their legs and their necks. They were immense horses: it is said: they were ten thousand horses; it is said: twenty thousand horses; it is said: among them were twenty winged horses.
Abu Dawud related in his book: Muhammad ibn 'Awf narrated to us: Sa'id ibn Abi Maryam informed us: Yahya ibn Ayyoub informed us: 'Umara ibn Ghaziya narrated to me that Muhammad ibn Ibrahim narrated to him, from Muhammad ibn Abu Salama ibn Abd ar-Rahman: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) returned from the expedition of Tabouk, or Khaybar: and in his tent there was a curtain: the wind blew and uncovered the side of the curtain over dolls of Aïsha for play: « What is this, O Aïsha? » She said: my daughters. And he saw among them a horse having two wings of patches: « What is this I see in the midst of them? » « A horse.
» « And what is this upon it? » « Two wings. » « A horse having two wings? Have you not heard that Sulayman had horses that had wings?
» She said: then he laughed until I saw his molars. When he left the horses for Allah, Allah compensated him with what is better than them for him: and it is the wind whose going forth was a month and whose return was a month, as the discourse will come concerning it: Isma'il narrated to us: Sulayman ibn al-Moughira narrated to us, from Humayd ibn Hilal, from Abu Qatada and Abu ad-Dahma', who traveled often toward the House: we came upon a man of the desert folk: the bedouin said: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) took my hand and began teaching me of what Allah had taught him: « You do not leave anything out of fear of Allah (exalted is He) but that Allah gives you better than it. »
« And We had certainly tried Sulayman and placed upon his seat a body: then he turned back. » Ibn Jarir and Ibn Abi Hatim and other exegetes mentioned here many athars, from a group of the predecessors: and most of them, or all of them, are received from the isra'iliyyat: and in many of them is very strong strangeness: we have already drawn attention to that in our book: and we have limited ourselves here to the recitation alone. The content of what they mentioned: Sulayman (peace be upon him) was absent from his seat forty days, then returned to it: and when he returned he commanded the building of Bayt al-Maqdis: he built it a sound building: and we have already established that he restored it, and that the first to make it a mosque was Isra'il (peace be upon him): « O messenger of Allah, which mosque was established first? » « The Sacred Mosque.
» « Then which? » « The mosque of Bayt al-Maqdis. » « How much between them? » « Forty years.
» And it is known that between Ibrahim, who built the Sacred Mosque, and Sulayman ibn Dawud (peace be upon them), there are more than a thousand years: leave aside forty years. And his asking for the dominion that does not befit anyone after him was after he completed the building of the sacred house, as the imam Ahmad, an-Nasaï, Ibn Majah, Ibn Khuzayma, Ibn Hibban and al-Hakim related, by their chains, from Abdallah ibn Fayrouz ad-Daylami, from Abdallah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « When Sulayman built Bayt al-Maqdis, he asked his Lord (exalted is He) for three things, and He gave him two, and we hope that the third is for us: he asked Him for a judgment agreeing with His judgment, and He gave it to him; and he asked Him for a dominion that does not befit anyone after him, and He gave it to him; and he asked Him that any man who goes out from his house wanting nothing but the prayer in this mosque should go out of his sin like the day his mother bore him: and we hope that Allah has given us that.
» As for the judgment that matched the judgment of Allah the Most High: « And Dawud and Sulayman, when they gave judgment concerning the field, when the sheep of a people had pastured in it by night: and We were witness to their judgment. So We made Sulayman understand it: and to each We gave judgment and knowledge. » (al-Anbiya, 78-79) Churayh the judge and more than one of the predecessors mentioned that these people had a vineyard: and the flock of sheep of another people entered it by night: that is, it grazed it and ate its trees entirely: so they brought the dispute to Dawud (peace be upon him): he judged for the owners of the vineyard its value: « But what did the prophet of Allah judge for you? » « Such and such.
» « Were I in his place, I would not have judged except by delivering the sheep to the owners of the vineyard: they would take from them milk and labor until the owners of the sheep repaired their vineyard and restored it to its state: then their sheep would be returned to them. » That reached Dawud (peace be upon him), and he judged with it.
Near to this is what is established in the Sahih, from the hadith of Abu az-Zinad, from al-A'raj: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « While two women were with their two sons, a wolf came and took the son of one of them: they disputed over the other: "It took your son. "It took your son. They brought the case to Dawud: he judged it for the elder. They went out to Sulayman: "Bring me a knife: I will cut him in two halves: for each of you a half.
One said: "No, may Allah have mercy on you: he is her son. So he judged it for her. » And perhaps each of the two judgments was permissible in their law: but what Sulayman said is sounder: that is why Allah praised him for what He inspired to him: « and to each We gave judgment and knowledge. » « And We subjected, with Dawud, the mountains exalting, and the birds: and We were doing.
And We taught him the making of coats of mail for you, to protect you from your violence: then will you be grateful? » (al-Anbiya, 78-80) Then he said: « And to Sulayman the wind storming »: that is: and We subjected to Sulayman the wind storming, flowing by his command to the land We blessed: and We were of all things Knowing: « and of the devils those who dove for him and did work other than that: and We were for them Guardians. » (al-Anbiya, 81-82)
And He said in sura Sad: « So We subjected to him the wind flowing by his command, gently, wherever it reached, and the devils, every builder and diver, and others, bound in fetters: This is Our gift: so bestow or withhold without account. And he has with Us indeed nearness and a good return. » When he left the horses seeking the face of Allah, Allah compensated him for them with the wind: which is faster in course, stronger, greater, and without any cost upon him, to whichever land he wished.
He had a carpet composed of wood, such that it could hold all that he needed of built houses, palaces, tents, furnishings, horses, camels, burdens, men of the jinn and humans, and other than that of animals and birds. When he intended a journey, or an outing, or the fighting of a king or enemies of whatever land of Allah he wished, and he had loaded upon the carpet those mentioned matters, he commanded the wind: it entered beneath it and raised it: when he sailed between the heaven and the earth, he commanded the gentle wind: it traveled with him: and if he wished faster than that, he commanded the storm: it carried him at the fastest speed and set him down in whatever place he wished: such that he would set out at the beginning of the day from Bayt al-Maqdis: the wind would carry him and set him down at Istakhr, a month's journey: he would remain there until the end of the day, then set out at its end: and it would return him to Bayt al-Maqdis: « And to Sulayman the wind, its going forth a month and its return a month. »
« And We made flow for him the spring of qitr. » Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, 'Ikrima and Qatada said: it is copper: and it was in the Yemen: Allah made it gush for him: three days only: he took from it all that he needed for the buildings and other.
« And among the jinn those who worked before him by the permission of his Lord: and whoever of them swerved from Our command, We made him taste of the punishment of the Blaze. » That is: Allah subjected to him of the jinn laborers who did for him what he wished: they did not slacken nor depart from his obedience: and whoever of them departed from the command, he punished him and took vengeance on him. « They made for him what he willed of sanctuaries »: these are the excellent places and the places of honor of assemblies. « And statues »: these are the images in the walls: and this was permissible in their law and their religion. « And great bowls like reservoirs »: the bowl like the pit of the earth: like the pools: thus said Mujahid, al-Hasan, Qatada, ad-Dahhak and others: and according to this transmission, « al-jawab » would be the plural of « jabiya »: which is the basin into which water is drawn:
« The repelling of blame from the family of the shaven head: a bowl like the Iraqi irrigation basin, overflowing. »
As for the « fixed cauldrons »: their trivets are part of that: meaning that they are fixed and do not leave their places: thus said Mujahid and more than one. And since this was in the line of feeding food, and kindness to the creation of humans and jinn: « Work, O family of Dawud, in gratitude: and few of My servants are grateful. »
And the Most High said: « and the devils, every builder and diver »: meaning that among them are those he subjected to building, and among them one he commands to dive into the water to extract what is there of jewels and pearls, and other than that of what is found nowhere else. « And others, bound in fetters »: that is: they had disobeyed: so they were bound, two by two, in the fetters: which are the chains. All of that is of what Allah prepared and subjected to him of the things that are of the complete dominion which does not befit anyone after him: and which was not given either to the one who was before him.
Muhammad ibn Bachchar narrated to us: Muhammad ibn Ja'far narrated to us: Shu'ba narrated to us, from Muhammad ibn Ziyad, from Abu Hurayra: « Yesterday evening an ifrit of the jinn broke loose to cut off my prayer: Allah gave me power over him: I seized him and intended to tie him to a pillar of the mosque, for all of you to look at him: My Lord, forgive me, and grant me a dominion that does not befit anyone after me. » And I sent him back despised. And Muslim and an-Nasaï related it likewise, from the hadith of Shu'ba. Muhammad ibn Salama al-Mouradi narrated to us: Abdallah ibn Wahb narrated to us, from Mou'awiya ibn Salih: Rabi'a ibn Yazid narrated to me, from Abu Idris al-Khoulani: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stood in prayer: « I seek refuge in Allah from you.
I curse you with the curse of Allah » three times, and he extended his hand as if taking something. « O messenger of Allah, we heard you say in the prayer something we had not heard you say before, and we saw you extend your hand. » « The enemy of Allah, Iblis, came with a brand of fire to place it on my face: I said: I seek refuge in Allah from you, three times; then I said: I curse you with the complete curse of Allah: he did not delay, three times. Then I intended to seize him: and by Allah, were it not for the invocation of our brother Sulayman, he would have risen bound, a plaything of the children of the people of Medina.
» And an-Nasaï related it likewise, from Muhammad ibn Salama. Abu Ahmad narrated to us: Masarra ibn Ma'bad narrated to us: Abu Ubayd, companion of Sulayman, transmitted: I saw 'Ata ibn Yazid al-Laythi standing in prayer: I intended to pass before him: Abu Sa'id al-Khoudri narrated to me that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stood and prayed the sobh prayer at the head, and I was behind him: he recited, and the recitation became confused with him: « Had you seen me and Iblis: I moved my hand, and I did not cease strangling him until I found the coolness of his saliva between these two fingers, the thumb and the one following it: and were it not for the invocation of my brother Sulayman, he would have risen tied to a pillar of the mosque: the children of Medina playing with him: and whoever is able, to the end of it, from Ahmad ibn Surayj, from Abu Ahmad az-Zoubayri.
More than one of the predecessors mentioned that he had women to the number of a thousand: seven hundred married with bridal money, and three hundred concubines: and it is said: three hundred wives and seven hundred servant girls: and he could, in the enjoyment of women, a very great matter.
Khalid ibn Makhlad narrated to us: Moughira ibn Abd ar-Rahman narrated to us, from Abu az-Zinad, from al-A'raj, from Abu Hurayra: Sulayman ibn Dawud said: « Tonight I will go round seventy women: each woman will bear a horseman who fights in the way of Allah. » It was said to him: « Say: if Allah wills. » He did not say it: he went round none of them, except one who brought a miscarried fetus, one side of which was missing: « Had he said "if Allah wills", they would have fought in the way of Allah. » Shu'ayb and Ibn Abi az-Zinad said: « enjoyment » instead of « go round »: and it is sounder.
Al-Bukhari alone related it by this route. Zouhayr narrated to us: Yazid informed us: Hicham ibn Hassane informed us, from Muhammad: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « Sulayman ibn Dawud said: tonight I will go round a hundred women: each of them will bear a boy who will strike with the sword in the way of Allah. » It was not said to him: if Allah wills: he went round that night upon a hundred women: none of them bore, except one woman who bore half a human being: « Had he said: if Allah wills, every woman of them would have borne a boy who would strike with the sword in the way of Allah. » Its isnad is according to the criterion of Muslim: and they did not extract it by this route.
Houchaym narrated to us: Hicham transmitted to us, from Ibn Sirine: Sulayman ibn Dawud said: « Tonight I will go round a hundred women: each one of them will bear a boy who will fight in the way of Allah. » And he did not except: and only one of them bore with half of a human being. The messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « Had he excepted by saying: if Allah wills, a hundred boys would have been born to him, all fighting in the way of Allah. » Ahmad alone related it also.
Abd ar-Razzaq narrated to us: Ma'mar transmitted to us, from Ibn Tawous, from his father: the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: « Sulayman ibn Dawud said: tonight I will go round a hundred women: each woman of them will bear a boy who will fight in the way of Allah. » And he forgot to say: if Allah wills: he went round them: and none of them bore, except one: half a human being: « Had he said: if Allah wills, he would not have sworn, and his need would have been attained. » And thus the two extracted it in the Sahih, from the hadith of Abd ar-Razzaq, the same. Mqatil informed us, from Abu az-Zinad, and Ibn Abi az-Zinad from his father, from Abd ar-Rahman: that Sulayman ibn Dawud had four hundred wives and six hundred concubines: « Tonight I will go round a thousand women: each will conceive of a horseman who will fight in the way of Allah.
» And he did not except: he went round them: none conceived, except one woman of them who brought half a human being: « By He in whose hand is my soul: had he excepted by saying: if Allah wills, what he said would have been born to him: horsemen fighting in the way of Allah. » And this is a weak isnad: because of the state of Ishaq ibn Bichr: for he is of rejected hadith: and especially as he contradicts the authentic transmissions.
He had, of the affairs of dominion, the expansion of the state, the multitude of armies and their diversity, what no one before him had: and Allah will not give it to anyone after him: « We have been given of all things »: and he said: « My Lord, forgive me, and grant me a dominion that does not befit anyone after me: You are the great Bestower »: and Allah gave him that, by the text of the truthful confirmed one. And when the Most High mentioned what He had blessed him with and granted him of complete, immense favors: « This is Our gift: so bestow or withhold without account »: that is: give whom you will and deprive whom you will: there is no accounting upon you: dispose of wealth as you will: for Allah has made permissible for you all that you do of that, and will not hold you to account for it: and such is the condition of the prophet-king, unlike the servant-messenger: for it is of his condition that he gives no one and refuses no one except by the permission of Allah for him in that.
Our prophet Muhammad (may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) was given the choice between these two stations, and he chose to be a servant and a messenger: he consulted Jibril concerning that, who directed him to humility: so he chose to be a servant and a messenger (may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him). And Allah made the succession and the dominion after him in his community until the Day of Resurrection: a group of his community will ever remain manifest until the Hour rises: to Allah the praise and the favor.
And when the Most High mentioned what He bestowed upon His prophet Sulayman (peace be upon him) of the good of this world, He drew attention to what He prepared for him in the Hereafter of ample reward and beautiful recompense, and the nearness that draws him near to Him, and the great success and the honor before Him: and that on the day of the return and the account: « And he has with Us indeed nearness, and a good return. »
Mention of his death, the duration of his reign and his life: « Then, when We decreed upon him death, nothing indicated them his death except the creature of the earth eating his staff: when he fell down, the jinn became clear that, had they known the unseen, they would not have remained in the humiliating punishment. »
Ibn Jarir and Ibn Abi Hatim and others related, from the hadith of Ibrahim ibn Tahman, from 'Ata ibn as-Sa'ib, from Sa'id ibn Jubayr, from Ibn Abbas: Sulayman, prophet of Allah (peace be upon him), [questioned the creatures]: « What is your name? » « Such. » « For what are you? » « Had I been for a planting, I would have been planted; and had I been for a remedy, it would have been written.
» While he was in prayer one day, he saw a tree before him: « What is your name? » « The carob. » « For what are you? » « For the ruin of this house.
» « O Allah, conceal from the jinn my death, that the humans may know that the jinn do not know the unseen. » He cut from it a staff, and leaned upon it for a year, while the jinn worked: and Ibn Abbas used to recite it thus. The jinn thanked the termite: she brought them water: such is the wording of Ibn Jarir. And 'Ata al-Khourasani is a strangeness in his hadith.
And the hafiz Ibn Asakir related it, by the route of Salama ibn Kouhayl, from Sa'id ibn Jubayr, from Ibn Abbas, as a mawquf report: and it is the nearest to the right: and Allah knows best.
And as-Souddi said, in the report he related from Abu Malik and Abu Salih, from Ibn Abbas, and from Murra, from Ibn Mas'oud: Sulayman (peace be upon him) would purify himself at Bayt al-Maqdis a year, two years, a month, two months, less than that and more: he brought in his food and drink: and he brought it in the time in which he died: the beginning of that was that there was not a day in which he rose but that a tree had grown in Bayt al-Maqdis: he would come to it: « What is your name? » « My name is such and such. » « I grew as a remedy for such and such. » He would set it thus aside.
« The carob. » « What is your name? » « I am the carob. » « And for what have I grown?
» « I grew for the ruin of this mosque. » « Allah will not ruin it while I live: you are the one upon whom is my destruction and the ruin of Bayt al-Maqdis. » He therefore uprooted it and planted it in a garden of his: then he entered the mihrab and stood in prayer leaning upon his staff: he died: and the devils did not know of that, while they worked for him: fearing he would come out and punish them: and the devils would gather around the mihrab: and the mihrab had passages before him and behind him: « Am I not a wall: if I enter and come out from that side?
» He would enter until he came out from the other side: a devil of those entered therefore: he passed: and no devil looked upon Sulayman (peace be upon him) in the mihrab but that he burned: and he did not hear the voice of Sulayman: then he returned and did not hear: then he returned and fell into the house without burning: and looked upon Sulayman (peace be upon him) fallen dead: he went out therefore and informed the people that Sulayman had died: so they opened him, brought him out, and found his staff, which is called « minsaa » in the Abyssinian tongue, eaten by the termite: and they did not know how long he had been dead: they placed the termite upon the staff: she ate of it a day and a night: then they reckoned upon that manner and found he had died a year before: the people became certain at that that the jinn lied: and had they known the unseen, they would have known of the death of Sulayman, and would not have remained in the punishment a year working for him: and that is the word of Allah (exalted is He): « nothing indicated them his death except the creature of the earth eating his staff: when he fell down, the jinn became clear that, had they known the unseen, they would not have remained in the humiliating punishment.
» He says: their affair became clear to the people that they lied to them. « Had you eaten food, we would bring you the finest of food, and had you drunk drink, we would give you the finest of drink: but we shall transport to you the water and the clay. » They transport that to her wherever she was: « Have you not seen the clay that is in the hollow of the wood: it is what the devils bring her in gratitude toward her. » And this is of the isra'iliyyat that are neither believed nor disbelieved.
Abu Dawud said in his book: 'Uthman ibn Abi Chayba narrated to us: Qabisa narrated to us: Soufyan narrated to us, from al-A'mach, from Khaythama: Sulayman ibn Dawud (peace be upon him) said: « O Allah, when You will to take my soul, inform me. » « Who knows that better than you? They are only Books cast down to Me, in which is named he who dies. »
Asbagh ibn al-Faraj and Abdallah ibn Wahb said: Sulayman said to the angel of death: « When you are commanded over me, inform me. » « O Sulayman, I have been commanded over you: there remains to you an afternoon. » He called the devils: they built him a palace of glass that had no door: he stood in prayer, leaning upon his staff: the angel of death entered upon him and took his soul while he was leaning upon his staff: and he did not do that fleeing from the angel of death: and the jinn worked before him and looked upon him: supposing him alive. Allah sent therefore the creature of the earth: meaning to his staff: she ate it until, having eaten the hollow of the staff, it weakened and he was heavy upon it: he fell: when the jinn saw that, they scattered and went away: and that is His saying: « nothing indicated them his death except the creature of the earth eating his staff: when he fell down, the jinn became clear that, had they known the unseen, they would not have remained in the humiliating punishment.
» Asbagh said: and it has reached me from others that she remained a year eating in his staff until he fell: and the like of this has been related from a group of the predecessors and others: and Allah knows best.
Ishaq ibn Bichr said, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq, from az-Zouhri: Sulayman (peace be upon him) lived fifty-two years: and his reign was forty years. Abu Rouq informed us, from 'Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas: his reign was twenty years: and Allah knows best. The total life of Sulayman ibn Dawud (peace be upon him) was therefore a little over fifty-two years. And in the fourth year of his reign he began, according to what is mentioned, the building of Bayt al-Maqdis: then the kingdom of the Children of Israel divided after him.