David and Solomon

David and Solomon focuses on the united Israelite kingdom. Whilst this volume in The Bible: An Islamic Perspective series frames the stories with the major historical events of the two reigns, as found in the Biblical record, it concentrates more upon comparing the Quranic allusions to the two monarchs and their more developed versions in the Quranic Commentary of Surabadi. We shall find that the Islamic view about them is much kinder to them (as is Chronicles in the Bible) than are the stories in Samuel-Kings. The Quran alludes to the David and Bathsheba story; Surabadi relates a chaste version of the sordid tale. The examination of the Solomonic cycle compares the Bible and Jewish tradition with the Quran and Surabadi. With Solomon, the emphasis is on the marvelous and fantastic. Among the stories discussed are: the Succession, the Ring, the Building of the Temple and the Palace, Solomon’s Wealth, Solomon and the Ants, and the Queen of Sheba. Solomon’s apostasy and death are investigated at the end of the volume.