The Testament of Solomon

The King’s Book of Demons

The Testament of Solomon claims to record how King Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem: not with human labour alone, but by summoning and binding seventy-two demons, compelling each one to work on the Temple and reveal the angel whose name could bind them. One by one, the demons appear before Solomon’s ring, confess their nature, describe the diseases and calamities they cause, and are put to wo

Codex Digital EditionComing soonEdition currently in preparation

Edition027

FormatDigital PDF

Editorial statusIn review

TraditionLost Scripture

Before you read

Context without the mythology.

Codex ISO separates the surviving evidence from later interpretation, so you can encounter the text without being told what to believe about it first.

01 / Historical context

Written 1st–5th century AD. Condemned repeatedly as diabolical. The source of Western ceremonial magic’s entire system of demonic classification and binding.

02 / Why it matters

Solomon built the Temple with demonic labour. This is his record of how.

From / associated with the text

““I Solomon glorified the Lord God, and then I asked of the demon: Who art thou, and what is thy name? And he said: I am called Ornias.””

THE CODEX STANDARD

Source before story.

We identify the edition, translation and surviving evidence; distinguish documentation from tradition; and state uncertainty rather than turning it into a sales claim.

Our editorial standard ↗

Continue the archive

The Testament of Solomon

Context without the mythology.

Source before story.

Read next.

The Didache

The Epistle of Barnabas

The Acts of Paul and Thecla