MAGIC AND TALISMANIC RINGS 289
distant place or of any persons in regard to whom he wished to be informed.1
A
variant of the legend we have just given is found in another Arabian
tradition, which recounts that Solomon was so much infatuated with a
female prisoner, the daughter of a Gentile prince, and named Aminah,
that he entrusted to her care his precious signet, given to him by the
four angels that presided over the four elements. A mighty Jinn
succeeded in gaining possession of the ring, and, by its power,
assumed Solomon's form, at the same time changing that unhappy
monarch's appearance to such an extent that his courtiers no longer
recognized him, and drove him from his kingdom. However, one of
Solomon's ministers was shrewd enough to see through the disguise of
the Jinn, and proceeded to exorcise the evil spirit by reciting certain
verses of the Law. The Jinn fled affrighted, and dropped the ring into
the sea. Here it was swallowed by a fish, and in due time this fish
was caught by Solomon, who had entered the employ of a fisherman. Once
again in possession of his ring, Solomon soon regained his kingdom.2
The great Persian poet Hafiz of Shiraz thus uses Solomon's Seal to point a moral:3
Matters of beauty other there be, beside sweet speech, And Solomon-hood by a seal-ring alone is not begot.
The legend of the mystic ring of Gyges is related
1 Giovanni B. Rampolli, " Annales Musulmani," vol. viii, Milano, 1824, p. 544 sqq., note 90.
2 Burton " Supplementary Nights," London, 1886, vol. iii, p. 72, note.
3 The poems of Mohammed Hafiz of Shiraz, translated by John Payne, London, 1901, vol, iii, p. 230; epodes II, 2.
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