played upon each other. Most of these old stories are too silly to repeat,
but some of them had foundation in fact. They tell a tale of how the queen
set five hundred boys and five hundred girls before the king, all the
girls dressed as boys and all the boys dressed as girls, and then she
asked him, as he was such a wise man, immediately to distinguish those of
one sex from those of the other. Solomon did not hesitate a moment, but
ordering basins of water to be brought, he commanded the young people to
wash their hands. Thereupon he watched them closely, and as the boys
washed only their hands, while the girls rolled up their sleeves and
washed their arms as well as their hands, Solomon was able, without any
trouble, to pick out the one from the other. Now, something of this kind
really happened, but there were only ten boys and ten girls. But in the
course of ages the story grew, and the whole thing was made absurd; for
there never was a king in the world, nor would there be likely to be one,
who could have a thousand basins ready immediately to put before a company
who wished to wash their hands. But the result of this scheme convinced
the queen that Solomon was a man of the deepest insight into the manners
and customs of human beings, as well as those of animals, birds, and
fishes.

"But there is an incident with which I was personally connected which was
known at the time to very few people, and was never publicly related. The
beautiful queen desired, above all other things, to know whether Solomon
held her in such high esteem because she was a mighty queen, or on
account of her personal attractions; and in order to discover the truth
in regard to this question, she devised a little scheme to which she made
me a party. There was a young woman in her train, of surpassing beauty,
whose name was Liridi, and the queen was sure that Solomon had never seen
her, for it was her custom to keep her most beautiful attendants in the
background. This maiden the queen caused to be dressed in the richest and