Solomon was renowned as a sage. When two women each claimed to be the mother of the same baby, he determined the real mother by observing each woman’s reaction to the prospect of dividing the child into two halves; he acknowledged the woman who protested as the mother. Solomon was deemed wiser than all the sages of Egypt and the Middle East—even wiser than some ancient paragons of wisdom. The biblical Book of Proverbs contains collections of aphorisms and other wise teachings attributed to him. Like his father, Solomon was also revered as a poet. The biblical Song of Solomon is attributed to him—albeit spuriously and likely because of his posthumous fame—in the opening verse. His reputation as a great lover, reflected in the size of his harem, is appropriately a major theme in the Song of Solomon. Postbiblical tradition attributed later works to him: the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon, on the one hand, and the Odes of Solomon and Psalms of Solomon, on the other, are tributes to him as sage and poet.

Decline of the kingdom

The biblical account of his reign states that Solomon’s personal prestige and genius were required to perpetuate the powerful nation he had acquired from his father and then further strengthened. It is suspected that the increase in Israel’s wealth was matched by an increase in extravagance and that the wealth was not diffused to the people. It is also considered possible that Solomon’s treatment of the northern tribes showed favouritism to his own tribe of Judah. Solomon’s son and successor, Rehoboam, ill-advisedly adopted a harsh policy toward the northern tribes, which seceded and formed their own kingdom of Israel. This left the descendants of Solomon with the southern kingdom of Judah. Thus, Solomon’s empire was lost beyond recall, and even the homeland was split into two often-hostile kingdoms.