King Solomon’s Clever Trick

An old legend tells how King Solomon once found himself in a spacious underground hall where travellers were waiting for a way to a bright garden. When the tall…

An old legend tells how King Solomon once found himself in a spacious underground hall where travellers were waiting for a way to a bright garden. When the tall doors swung open, everyone hurried after the guide. Solomon lingered beside an old stone wall, studying the words written on it. The doors closed, and he remained in the quiet hall with its stern but fair guardian.

Solomon did not lose heart. He took out a cord, began measuring the walls and thoughtfully counted his paces. The guardian asked what he was doing. “There is room here for a reading room, a school of crafts and a hall for wise conversation,” the king replied. “But they would take up almost the whole hall.” The guardian looked around his tidy space and decided that such grand plans would be better suited to somewhere larger. He led Solomon out himself.

After climbing a staircase, the king saw the sunlit gates of the garden. Beyond them he could hear music, rustling leaves and kindly voices. Solomon asked the gardeners, “Tell me, where is it easier to breathe: in a gloomy hall or among these trees?” They replied that the garden was bright and open. “Then let me have just a little peek at how you have laid out the paths,” he asked.

The gardeners opened one gate a little, but Solomon did not hurry across the threshold. He offered a riddle which, he said, could only be solved while standing on opposite sides of the gates: “What grows when it is shared?” Everyone began suggesting answers. To hear one another better, the gardeners opened the gates wide. Then, together, they found the answer: knowledge and joy.

Solomon thanked them and politely asked permission to stay in the humblest corner. The gardeners liked his resourcefulness and respectful conversation, so they showed him to a bench beneath a pomegranate tree. There the king started a little riddle circle. Adults and children came to listen, disagree without hurt feelings and share their answers. And so wisdom opened a door that needed no key.