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that the king of Ammon raised him to the post of chief cook. Thus he came under the notice of the king's daughter Naa- mah, who fell in love with her father's cook. In vain her parents endeavored to persuade her to choose a husband befitting her rank. Not even the king's threat to have her and her beloved executed availed to turn her thoughts away from Solomon. The Ammonite king had the lovers taken to a barren desert, in the hope that they would die of starva- tion there. Solomon and his wife wandered through the desert until they came to a city situated by the sea-shore.
They purchased a fish to stave off death. When Naamah
prepared the fish, she found in its belly the magic ring be- longing to her husband, which he had given to Asmodeus, and which, thrown into the sea by the demon, had been swal- lowed by a fish. Solomon recognized his ring, put it on his finger, and in the twinkling of an eye he transported himself to Jerusalem. Asmodeus, who had been posing as King Solomon during the three years, he drove out, and himself ascended the throne again.
Later on he cited the king of Ammon before his tribunal, and called him to account for the disappearance of the cook and the cook's wife, accusing him of having killed them. The king of Ammon protested that he had not killed, but only banished them. Then Solomon had the queen appear, and to his great astonishment and still greater joy the king of Ammon recognized his daughter.91
Solomon succeeded in regaining his throne only after undergoing many hardships. The people of Jerusalem considered him a lunatic, because he said that he was Solo- mon. After some time, the members of the Sanhedrin no-
