The Book of Solomon

The Ivory Casket and the Recovered Key

Babylonian philosophers find the Key in an ivory casket while repairing Solomon’s tomb. They possess the book, but cannot understand it until one of their company seeks divine help. [2]

Greater Key · Additional MS 10862 introduction

Philosophers examine an open ivory casket and a book amid fallen masonry in a tomb. — **Artistic interpretation** Philosophers discover the Key in Solomon’s ivory casket.

The book beneath the tomb

Solomon commanded Roboam to make an ivory casket, hide the Key inside it and place it in his sepulchre after his death. He feared that the teaching might fall into wicked hands. His son fulfilled the command, and the book remained concealed for a long time.

[2]

Babylonian philosophers later came to renew the sepulchre in Solomon’s honour. As the tomb was dug out and repaired, they discovered the casket and the Key of Secrets within it. They took the book joyfully. Once they opened it, however, none could understand its obscure words, arrangement or hidden meaning. [2]

The words become clear

One of the philosophers, older and judged more worthy than the others, proposed asking the Lord for an interpretation. Mathers calls him Iohé Grevis. After the company retired to bed, Iohé fell upon his face, wept and struck his breast. He then knelt, raised his hands and asked the Creator who had given Solomon wisdom to make him worthy of understanding the book. [2]

An angel appeared and explained that the obscurity protected the secrets from wicked readers. Iohé was asked to promise that any disclosure would remain disciplined and secret. He agreed to reveal the teaching only for divine honour, to penitent, faithful people who would keep it to themselves. [2]

The angel told him to read the Key and ascended into heaven in a flame of fire. Iohé found the words clear in every part. He charged any future possessor to keep the treasure from the unworthy, then deposited the Key once more in its ivory casket. [2]

The philosopher’s name

Mathers found the name difficult to decipher. He prints Iohé Grevis but notes that another copy reads Iroe Grecis, which he considers an error. [2]

The Goetia gives a different Babylonian discovery: a brass vessel containing spirits. Here, the object recovered from the tomb is a book, and the discovery is completed by interpretation and its return to the casket. [2][1]

Sources and editions

Goetia — binding and release of the seventy-two
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, translated; Aleister Crowley, edited, The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King (1904), first-edition facsimile. Paragraph immediately following entry 72; printed page 31, facsimile PDF page 28. Pride, four chiefs, Babylon, release and Belial’s image.
Greater Key — Introduction from Additional MS 10862
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, The Key of Solomon the King (1889), manuscript introductions attributed to British Library Additional MS 10862 and Lansdowne MS 1203. Introduction from Additional MS 10862, printed pp. 3–4; PDF pp. 10–11. Burial, repair, discovery, prayer, angelic interpretation and return; p. 3 notes record Iohé Grevis/Iroe Grecis and the manuscript mihi with proposed ei reading.

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