Deeply troubled, Solomon climbed to a high jutting rock on Mount Moriah and prayed unto Yahweh. Suddenly the emerald winged archangel Michael, in a vision of brilliant light, appeared before him bearing a gold ring and said: ‘Take, O Solomon, King, son of David, the gift which the Lord God, the highest Zebaot, hath sent unto thee. With it thou shalt lock up the demons of the earth, male and female, and with their help thou shalt build up Jerusalem. But thou must wear this seal of God.

Armed with the ring, Solomon now dared to employ its greatest powers and summoned the vampire Ornias who had weakened Jair and frustrated the building of the Temple. He told Ornias that he must compensate him by cutting stones by day for the Temple, and Ornias bowed low and obeyed the command of the ring lord. But first Solomon asked Ornias, who was the lord of all demons? Ornias answered ‘Beelzebul’. Solomon gave Ornias the ring and told him to summon Beelzebul to his presence. Ornias took it, went to Beelzebul and said, ‘Hither, Solomon calls thee.’ And Beelzebul laughed and said, ‘Who is this Solomon?’ Then Ornias threw the ring at Beelzebul’s breast, saying, ‘Solomon the King summons you under the seal of Yahweh.’ Beelzebul cried aloud with a mighty voice, emitted a great flame and came into Solomon’s presence.

So did Beelzebul, proud lord of the demons, bow low before the feet of the master of the ring and await his pleasure. At Solomon’s command Beelzebul summoned all the demons of the earth before the king… And though Beelzebul was their lord, he was not Solomon’s chief adversary among all the demons. This was the great Asmodeus: tall, mocking, sardonic and handsome, albeit bat-winged and cloven-footed.

Before this terrible host Solomon raised his hand adorned with the gold ring and he commanded them all to work upon the Temple of Yahweh…So at this time Solomon used the power of the ring only to achieve the work of Yahweh and all went well with him and his kingdom. But still, because of God's prohibition of iron, the building went slowly, for the cutting of the great stones of the Temple was long and difficult work.

Solomon held counsel with his wise men, and the scholars among them told him of that brilliant and magical gem called the Schamir which Moses had used to engrave the names of the tribes of Israel upon the precious stones of the High Priest’s ephod… But neither the scholars nor the demons could tell Solomon where the Schamir could be found. Only Asmodeus possessed this knowledge and during Solomon’s absence he had escaped. Yet Solomon pursued and trapped him, and with the ring forced him to reveal where the Schamir might be found. Asmodeus said that the Schamir had been entrusted to the Angel of the Sea after Moses’ death, and that it was now under the protection of the Sea Eagle… The slaves of Solomon appeared and cast spears and bolts of iron at the Sea Eagle. In fright she fled and the slaves retrieved the magical gem that could cut rock like butter.

The Schamir fitted exactly upon the bezel of Solomon’s gold ring. Through it the pentalpha and the One Name could be seen, shimmering and pulsating with such colour and radiance that some have claimed that the ring was also set with diamond, sapphire, emerald and ruby. But in truth there was only one gem, and by its power the rock of the temple was cut.

Yahweh spoke in the night to Solomon, warning him that the power of his ring was now doubled. He told Solomon that he must no longer ignore Michael’s first instruction to wear the ring at all times. It would preserve him from harm and keep him on the throne.

After the finding of the Schamir, Asmodeus was kept under bonds by Solomon in his palace… But Solomon underestimated Asmodeus, who had never told him the full truth about God’s workings, but instead lulled him into a false security. Moreover, with the Temple finished, Solomon paid more attention to pleasure than to piety; and Yahweh will not be mocked.

One day Asmodeus enraptured the king with a tale of the power and visions of the demons. Solomon asked how they could be so happy and gifted if a mere mortal like himself could keep their greatest prince under bonds. Asmodeus answered that Solomon had only to loosen his fetter and lend him the ring and he would prove his power and ecstatic vision. Solomon agreed. Asmodeus took the ring and placed it on his hand. By its doubled power the demon rose like a mountain before Solomon until one wing touched Heaven and the other touched the Earth. He snatched up Solomon and hurled him out of Israel into the vast wilderness of the south.

Some legends say that Asmodeus then passed himself off as the king, but the authoritative version reveals that he conjured up a counterfeit Solomon… Asmodeus himself flew out of Israel and returned to the freedom of his mountain fastness, hurling the ring into the depths of the Red Sea.

For three years Solomon wandered, an unrecognized beggar, atoning for his sins, while a counterfeit king sat on the throne. He came to the city of Ammon, took service as a kitchen skivvy in the palace of its king, and proved so talented that he was made chief cook. The king’s daughter, Naamah, fell in love with Solomon and the Ammonite king had the lovers taken to the desert to starve.

But Solomon still knew the language of the wild things and by his wisdom he and Naamah found enough food and water to survive until they came to the sea. There Solomon helped a fisherman draw in his nets to the shore and he was rewarded with a fish. When Naamah cleaned the fish she found the ring in its belly—the ring that Asmodeus had cast into the sea. Solomon put on the ring, gave thanks to Yahweh, and transported himself and Naamah to Jerusalem in a trice. The counterfeit Solomon fell before the true king and vanished under the ring’s seal.

The true Solomon was restored to his kingdom and his great wealth. Yet as time passed, Solomon became once again corrupted, he grew lustful and hedonistic and thus fell from grace with Yahweh. He began sacrificing to the gods of his various wives as well as to the Hebrew God. Above all he was besotted with his Jebusite queen and used his ring to build her goddess, Ashtaroth, a great temple and idol on the slopes of Mount Moriah.

Then Asmodeus, who was his evil tempter in all this, brought word from his eavesdropping at Heaven’s gate that the kingdom would be split at Solomon’s death; that the Temple and his books would be destroyed, and that the demons of disease would be released again.

Solomon repented, but it was too late and Asmodeus’s prophecies came about. However, it is said that Solomon died upright, leaning on his staff, and that the demons continued to work on his plans for many years after, not knowing that he was dead and that the power of the ring was now unmanned. At length a snake curled about the staff and it snapped and then the demons scattered.

The ring is thought to have been placed in the Holy of Holies in the Ark of the Covenant itself and never captured. A later magician went to rescue it when the soldiers of Titus were destroying the temple. He saw it and touched it, but then fainted and was carried to a strange land where a voice told him that the ring had been taken back to Heaven. (Tolkien’s Ring, Barnes and Noble, pg. 130 - 134.)