The story opens in Jerusalem with the djinni Bartimaeus currently in the service of one of the seventeen High Magicians of King Solomon of Israel, whom the king rules with the use of a mighty Ring. Ezekiel commands Bartimaeus to retrieve a magical artifact from the ancient city of Eridu. Bartimaeus succeeds, and then tricks the magician into commanding him to use the artefact against him. It sends a spurt of water at him, knocking him from his protective circle. Bartimaeus devours the old man and by the magician's death is released and returns to the Other Place.
The king, upon learning of Bartimaeus's murder of Ezekiel, is insulted that a mere djinni is the perpetrator. To make Bartimaeus pay for his actions he commands Khaba, an Egyptian and another of the seventeen, to summon Bartimaeus back into his service and punish him. The king also proposes to the queen of Sheba and is refused.
The scene shifts to the Sheban capital of Marib where Balkis, the aforementioned queen, receives a message from a fierce marid supposedly in Solomon's service: either pay a ransom of 40 sacks of frankincense or be destroyed, and gives her two weeks to pay. Balkis decides to send her loyal guard captain Asmira to Jerusalem to assassinate Solomon.
Back in Jerusalem, now in Khaba's service, Bartimaeus is commanded to perform many degrading jobs, including grain counting, sewage treatment, and artichoke collecting. Another unpleasant element is that one of his fellow slaves is his old rival Faquarl. Khaba assembles the eight djinn under his command and informs them that they have been commissioned to build Solomon's Temple on the Temple Mount and that they are to build it without using any magic whatsoever. Bartimaeus uses his trademark wit to infuriate Khaba and the magician unleashes his flail upon the djinn and threatens to place them in his essence cages (devices similar to the Mournful Orb in The Amulet of Samarkand) should they displease him a second time.
At first, Khaba and his subordinate closely supervise the stages of construction but after a while they stop showing up at the building site and the attitudes of the djinn grow lax. They begin assuming nonhuman forms and start using magic to build the temple (both actions directly in violation of Solomon's edicts). Several days later, Solomon makes an unexpected appearance on the building site. The other djinn manage to revert to human form and disguise their use of magic but Bartimaeus is caught in the form of a pygmy hippopotamus in a skirt (a comic reference to one of Solomon's 700 wives, "the one from Moab"). The king interrogates Bartimaeus and the djinni reluctantly admits his guilt while covering for the other spirits. As Solomon prepares to use the Ring on Bartimaeus, the djinni resorts to grovelling to appease the king. Bartimaeus's pathetic display amuses Solomon, who agrees to spare the djinni's life and instead punishes him (and Khaba, whom Solomon blames for failing to keep his spirits in line) by sending them to hunt down the local bandits.
Several days later, out in the desert, Bartimaeus and Faquarl find and defeat bandits attacking the traveller Asmira. Faquarl insists on eating her but Bartimaeus hopes she can intercede with Khaba on their behalf. Asmira is then escorted to Jerusalem by Khaba and manages to persuade him to reluctantly dismiss the two djinn. Faquarl gains his freedom but Bartimaeus is imprisoned in a small bottle by Khaba and his principal slave, the marid Ammet, as punishment for his earlier crimes. Asmira tries to use her feminine wiles to convince Khaba to get her near Solomon but fails. Asmira frees Bartimaeus from the bottle and commands him as his new master to help her kill Solomon. The pair sneak through the palace gardens and scale the tower wall to Solomon's chamber, evading obstacles through Bartimaeus' magical efforts.
They encounter the king in his observatory and Asmira stabs him with her dagger, only to discover that it is an illusion set up to trap them. Bartimaeus escapes, but Asmira is captured and taken before the true King Solomon. Meanwhile, Bartimaeus encounters the trapped afrit Philocretes and learns the secret behind Solomon and the Ring, that it causes immense pain to the bearer, in this case King Solomon. He then sneaks into the chamber where Solomon is interrogating Asmira and steals the Ring. Asmira takes the Ring from him, only to discover that its energies indeed inflict pain upon whoever touches it or uses it. Solomon then maintains that he never sent any ransom demand to Sheba, which causes Asmira to doubt herself and her loyalty to Queen Balkis. In the end, Asmira refrains from killing the king, choosing instead to take the Ring back to Sheba in spite of Solomon's warnings and Bartimaeus' demoralising analysis of her motives. Suddenly Khaba arrives, subdues both girl and djinni and claims the Ring for himself. Khaba commands the Spirit of the Ring to destroy several of his rival magicians as well as Solomon's palace, but Asmira manages to use her last throwing knife to slice off Khaba's finger, with the ring still on it, and commands Bartimaeus to throw it into the sea. Although weakened by his use of the Ring, Khaba attempts to destroy both Asmira and Solomon, who manage to hold off Khaba's other servants for a brief time.
Meanwhile, Bartimeaus has fled the palace with the powerful Ammet in hot pursuit. The two eventually reach the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and, Bartimaeus dips the ring in the sea, fulfilling his command. In an unexpected move, he then puts the Ring on and commands the Spirit to seal Ammet inside a wine jar at the bottom of the sea for a few thousand years. Returning to Jerusalem, Bartimaeus knocks out Khaba and returns the Ring to Asmira who gives it back to Solomon. The king imprisons Khaba and pardons both Asmira and Bartimaeus for their deeds. Solomon then summons Queen Balkis to Jerusalem and clears up the misunderstanding. However, a spiteful Balkis disowns her loyal guard from her service. Solomon then offers Asmira the opportunity to work for him instead.
In the aftermath of the attack, Asmira willingly dismisses Bartimaeus, revealing her intention to turn down Solomon's offer in favour of choosing her own path in life, and the two part ways on friendly terms.
Reception
The book received generally positive reception[1] and was praised for its portrayal of complex characters.[2]
The Ring of Solomon has received the following accolades:
Solomon, also called Jedidiah, was a monarch of ancient Israel and the son and successor of King David, according to the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament. He is described as having been the penultimate ruler of an amalgamated Israel and Judah. The hypothesized dates of Solomon's reign are from 970–931 BCE. After his death, his son and successor Rehoboam would adopt a harsh policy towards the northern tribes, eventually leading to the splitting of the Israelites between the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. Following the split, his patrilineal descendants ruled over Judah alone.
The Queen of Sheba is a figure first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. In the original story, she brings a caravan of valuable gifts for the Israelite King Solomon. This account has undergone extensive Jewish, Islamic, Yemenite and Ethiopian elaborations, and it has become the subject of one of the most widespread and fertile cycles of legends in Asia and Africa.
Sulaimān ibn Dāwūd was, according to the Quran, a malik and nabī of the Israelites. Generally, Islamic tradition holds that he was the third king of the Israelites and a wise ruler.
The Kebra Nagast, var. Kebra Negast, or The Glory of the Kings, is a 14th-century national epic of Ethiopia, written in Ge'ez by Nebure Id Ishaq of Axum, by the office of Abuna Abba Giyorgis and at the command of the governor of Enderta Ya'ibika Igzi'. The text, in its existing form, is at least 700 years old and is considered by many Ethiopian Christians to be a historically reliable work. It is considered to hold the genealogy of the Solomonic dynasty, which followed the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Jonathan Anthony Stroud is a British writer of fantasy fiction, best known for the Bartimaeus young adult sequence and Lockwood & Co. children's series. His books are typically set in an alternative history London with fantasy elements, and have received note for his satire, and use of magic to reflect themes of class struggle. The Bartimaeus sequence is the recipient of the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards. Stroud's works have also been featured on ALA Notable lists of books for children and young adults. In 2020, Netflix announced a TV series based on Lockwood & Co., with filming initiated in July 2021.
Marid is a type of powerful devil in Islamic traditions. The Arabic word meaning rebellious is applied to such supernatural beings.
Hiram Abiff is the central character of an allegory presented to all candidates during the third degree in Freemasonry.
Children of the Lamp is a series of contemporary fantasy novels written by the British author P. B. Kerr. It tells the story of twins John and Philippa as they discover how to act in the world of djinn. The story covers topics such as family, adventure, and loyalty.
The Crown of Dalemark is a 1993 fantasy novel by Diana Wynne Jones. It is the fourth and last book of the Dalemark Quartet, and follows the adventures of a group of people trying to reunite North and South Dalemark under a new king.
The Bartimaeus Sequence is a series of young adult novels of alternate history, fantasy and magic. It was written by British writer Jonathan Stroud and consists of a trilogy published from 2003 to 2005 and a prequel novel published in 2010. The story follows the career of a teenage magician Nathaniel and a five-thousand-year-old djinni Bartimaeus, whom he has summoned and nominally controls, through the alternative history of the peak of London's domination as a magical oligarchy.
The Amulet of Samarkand is a children's novel of alternate history, fantasy and magic. It is the first book in the Bartimaeus Sequence written by English author Jonathan Stroud. The first edition (paperback) was published in September 2003 by Doubleday in the United Kingdom. The book and series are about power struggles in a magical dystopia centred in London, England, and feature a mix of current and ancient, secular and mythological themes. The book is named after a magical artifact created in the ancient Asian city of Samarkand, around which the story revolves.
The Golem's Eye is a children's novel of alternate history, fantasy and magic. It is the second book in the Bartimaeus trilogy written by British author Jonathan Stroud. 6 million copies have been sold in 36 countries. It was a New York Times best-seller in 2004.
Ptolemy's Gate is a novel of alternate history, fantasy and magic. It is the third book in the Bartimaeus trilogy, written by British author Jonathan Stroud. It was released in the United Kingdom in September 2005, and in the United States in December of the same year.
A magic ring is a mythical, folkloric or fictional piece of jewelry, usually a finger ring, that is purported to have supernatural properties or powers. It appears frequently in fantasy and fairy tales. Magic rings are found in the folklore of every country where rings are worn. Some magic rings can endow the wearer with a variety of abilities including invisibility and immortality. Others can grant wishes or spells such as neverending love and happiness. Sometimes, magic rings can be cursed, as in the mythical ring that was recovered by Sigurð from the hoard of the worm Fáfnir in Norse mythology or the fictional ring that features in The Lord of the Rings. More often, however, they are featured as forces for good, or as a neutral tool whose value is dependent upon the wearer.
"The Butterfly that Stamped" is part of a series of books known as Just So Stories(1902) by Rudyard Kipling. These are collected short stories. The stories explain how things supposedly came to be.
Solomon and Sheba is a 1959 American epic historical romance film directed by King Vidor, shot in Technirama, and distributed by United Artists. The film dramatizes events described in The Bible—the tenth chapter of First Kings and the ninth chapter of Second Chronicles.
La reine de Saba is a grand opera in four or five acts by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré inspired by Gérard de Nerval's La Reine de Saba, in Le voyage en Orient. It was premiered at the Salle Le Peletier by the Paris Opera on February 28, 1862. The magnificent first production was directed by Eugène Cormon, with costumes designed by Alfred Albert and Paul Lormier, and scenery by Édouard Desplechin, Charles-Antoine Cambon and Joseph Thierry, Hugues Martin, and Joseph Nolau and Auguste Alfred Rubé.
Die Königin von Saba is an opera in four acts by Karl Goldmark. The German libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal sets a love triangle into the context of the Queen of Sheba's visit to the court of King Solomon, recorded in 1 Kings 10:1-13. The plot centres on a love triangle not found in the Bible between the Queen of Sheba, Assad, and Sulamith.
The Queen of Sheba is a 1952 Italian adventure film directed by Pietro Francisci.
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