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Chapter 5  
     
1.
 And I at once bade another demon to be led unto me.  
2.
 and instantly there approached me the demon Asmodeus, bound, and I asked him: "Who art thou?"  
3.
 But he shot on me a glance of anger and rage, and said: "And who art thou?"  
4.
 And I said to him: "Thus punished as thou art, answerest thou me?"  
5.
 But he, with rage, said to me: "But how shall I answer thee?  
6.
 for thou art a son of man; whereas I was born an angel's seed by a daughter of man, so that no word of our heavenly kind addressed to the earth-born can be overweening.  
7.
 Wherefore also my star is bright in heaven, and men call it, some the Wain, and some the dragon's child.  
8.
 I keep near unto this star. So ask me not many things;  
9.
 for thy kingdom also after a little time is to be disrupted, and thy glory is but for a season. And short will be thy tyranny over us;  
10.
 and then we shall again have free range over mankind, so as that they shall revere us as if we were gods, not knowing, men that they are, the names of the angels set over us.  
11.
 And I Solomon, on hearing this, bound him more carefully, and ordered him to be flogged with thongs of ox-hide, and to tell me humbly what was his name and what his business.  
12.
 And he answered me thus: "I am called Asmodeus among mortals, and my business is to plot against the newly wedded, so that they may not know one another.  
13.
 And I sever them utterly by many calamities, and I waste away the beauty of virgin women, and estrange their hearts."  
14.
 And I said to him: "Is this thy only business?"  
15.
 And he answered me: "I transport men into fits of madness and desire, when they have wives of their own, so that they leave them, and go off by night and day to others that belong to other men;  
16.
 with the result that they commit sin, and fall into murderous deeds.  
17.
 And I adjured him by the name of the Lord Sabaôth, saying: "Fear God, Asmodeus, and tell me by what angel thou art frustrated."  
18.
 But he said: "By Raphael, the archangel that stands before the throne of God. But the liver and gall of a fish put me to flight, when smoked over ashes of the tamarisk."  
19.
 I again asked him, and said: "Hide not aught from me.  
20.
 For I am Solomon, son of David, King of Israel.  
21.
 Tell me the name of the fish which thou reverest."  
22.
 And he answered: "It is the Glanos by name, and is found in the rivers of Assyria; wherefore it is that I roam about in those parts."  
23.
 And I said to him: "Hast thou nothing else about thee, Asmodeus?"  
24.
 And he answered: "The power of God knoweth, which hath bound me with the indissoluble bonds of yonder one's seal, that whatever I have told thee is true.  
25.
 I pray thee, King Solomon, condemn me not to go into water." But I smiled, and said to him: "As the Lord God of my fathers liveth, I will lay iron on thee to wear.  
26.
 But thou shalt also make the clay for the entire construction of the Temple, treading it down with thy feet."  
27.
 And I ordered them to give him ten water-jars to carry water in.  
28.
 And the demon groaned terribly, and did the work I ordered him to do.  
29.
 And this I did, because that fierce demon Asmodeus knew even the future.  
30.
 And I Solomon glorified God, who gave wisdom to me Solomon his servant.  
31.
 And the liver of the fish and its gall I hung on the spike of a reed, and burned it over Asmodeus because of his being so strong, and his unbearable malice was thus frustrated.  

 
 
 

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