The Eastern Travels of Solomon: Reimagining Persepolis and the Iranian Past

Abstract

In the Muslim tradition few prophets traveled with the speed—and none in the grand style with his entire court—of King Solomon, who was not only a revered prophet but also a universal ruler. The very sober and conservative scholar Baghawï (d. 510/1117 or 516/1122) quotes one of the earliest Qurʾān commentators, Muqātil b. Sulaymān (d. 153/770), who describes Solomon’s mode of transportation as follows:

The satans wove a carpet one parasang square for Solomon out of gold and silk, and they placed for him there in the middle of the carpet a pulpit of gold. Around it were three thousand seats of gold and silver, the prophets sitting on the seats of gold and the men of religious learning on the seats of silver, and around them were the jinn and satans. The birds with their wings gave Solomon shade so no sun fell upon him. The morning wind that blows from the East would raise the carpet so that it would travel a month’s journey from the morning to the afternoon, and [an equal trip] from the afternoon to the morning.¹

I am sincerely grateful for bibliographic help from Professor Hossein Kamaly, for some wise emails from Professor David Stronach, for thoughtful advice from Professor Abbas Amanat on an early version, for advice on Middle Persian languages from Daniel Sheffield, for invaluable advice in the archaeological literature from Professor Donald Whitcomb, and for deeply informed advice from Dr. Sarah Savant, who is writing a book on a similar theme.