The devils therefore built around him a lofty palace of crystal that had no door. He stood inside it in prayer, leaning upon his staff.

He said: The Angel of Death entered, seized his soul while he was still supported by the staff, yet Solomon had not done this out of any wish to flee the Angel of Death.

He also said: The jinn continued to toil before him, watching him and thinking he was alive. Then God sent the creature of the earth—meaning the termite—to his staff; it gnawed at it until, when it had hollowed out the inside, the staff weakened, grew heavy, and broke. Solomon fell, and when the jinn saw that, they scattered and fled.

He said: This is the meaning of His words: “Nothing disclosed his death to them except a creature of the earth that gnawed away his staff; and when he fell down, the jinn realized that, had they known the unseen, they would not have remained in the degrading torment” (Q 34:14).(1)

Aṣbagh said: I was informed by another that the creature kept eating at his staff for a full year before he fell. Similar reports have come from many of the early generations and others. God knows best.(2)

Ishāq ibn Bishr, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from al-Zuhrī and others, stated that Solomon—peace be upon him—lived fifty-two years, forty of which he reigned.

And Ishāq said: Abū Rūq related to us, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that his reign lasted twenty years. God knows best.

Ibn Jarīr said: The total lifespan of Solomon son of David—peace be upon them—was a little over fifty years,(3) and, according to what has been reported, he began constructing the Temple in Jerusalem in the fourth year of his reign.(4)

After him his son Rehoboam ruled for seventeen years, according to Ibn Jarīr,(5) who added that the kingdom of the Children of Israel then broke apart.(6)