it. The devils, for their part, had composed writings filled with unbelief and sorcery, then buried them beneath Solomon’s throne. When he died, they brought those writings to light and said, “It was by these names and these incantations that he used to subjugate the jinn.”

Two parties accepted their claim:

• One party—members of the People of the Scripture—impugned Solomon and even declared him an unbeliever, saying, “Whoever practices such things is a disbeliever.”

• The other party said, “We are following Solomon’s path and will do as he did.” These are the practitioners of incantations and talismans who seek to harness the jinn. They maintain, “Solomon employed them in exactly this manner,” and go so far as to assert: “These very names were engraved on his crown; this is the shape of his seal; these are the words of Asif ibn Barkhiya,” and similar tales they attach to him—lies, every one of them.

Muslim scholars have recorded all of this in their exegesis of the Almighty’s words: