The Book of Solomon

A Testament for Roboam

Solomon gives Roboam an inheritance more precious than riches: the knowledge gathered into the Key, with instructions for studying and preserving it. [1][3][2]

Greater Key · Additional MS 10862 and Lansdowne MS 1203

An older crowned man hands a closed book to a younger man across a table with a brass bowl and vessels. — **Artistic interpretation** Solomon entrusts his teaching to Roboam.

An inheritance in words

Roboam, the English introductions’ form of the name Rehoboam, asks how he can follow a father whose understanding of living things came through an angel. In the Additional MS 10862 introduction, Solomon answers with the story of Homadiel and the knowledge he gathered into the Key. He addresses his son as the heir to its secrets and requires him to prepare every experiment according to the work’s appointed days, hours and materials.

[1]

The Lansdowne MS 1203 introduction opens with Solomon at the point of death. He values knowledge of celestial movements above other sciences and calls the testament more precious than the riches he has enjoyed. Roboam is to listen attentively, retain the teaching and use it for divine honour. The father offers the names, duties and appointed times of the angels as part of that inheritance. [3]

Bark, copper and the Temple

The Preliminary Discourse gives a further account of preservation. After Solomon left his testament to Roboam, rabbis cultivated the knowledge and called the work the Clavicle, or Key, of Solomon. They engraved the teaching on pieces of tree bark. The pentacles were inscribed in Hebrew letters on copper plates and carefully preserved in the Temple. [2]

Bark carried the teaching; copper carried its written figures. In this discourse the work passes through a community of keepers after the king’s death. The introduction from Additional MS 10862 instead gives Roboam a private charge: he is to make an ivory casket, hide the Key inside it and place it beside Solomon in his sepulchre, lest it fall into wicked hands. [2][1]

Sources and editions

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. 2–3; PDF pp. 9–10. Roboam’s question, experiment requirements and ivory-casket burial charge.
Greater Key — Preliminary Discourse from Lansdowne MS 1203
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, The Key of Solomon the King (1889), manuscript introductions attributed to British Library Additional MS 10862 and Lansdowne MS 1203. Preliminary Discourse from Lansdowne MS 1203, printed p. 1; PDF p. 8. Rabbis, tree bark, Hebrew-lettered copper pentacles and Temple preservation.
Greater Key — Introduction from Lansdowne MS 1203
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 Lansdowne MS 1203, printed pp. 5–6; PDF pp. 12–13. Near-death inheritance, learning, remembrance and good use.

Return to The Brass Vessel

Loading Luminary Oddities

Loading Luminary Oddities

A Testament for Roboam

An inheritance in words

Bark, copper and the Temple

Sources and editions