King Juan ordered that they should be
transported in carts to the residence of a reverend prelate to be
examined. The prelate was less learned than devout. Some of the
books treated of mathematics, others of astronomy, with figures and
diagrams, and planetary signs; others of chemistry or alchemy, with
foreign and mystic words. All these were necromancy in the eyes of the
pious prelate, and the books were consigned to the flames, like the
library of Don Quixote.
THE SEAL OF SOLOMON. The device consists of two equilateral
triangles, interlaced so as to form a star, and surrounded by a
circle. According to Arab tradition, when the Most High gave Solomon
the choice of blessings, and he chose wisdom, there came from heaven a
ring, on which this device was engraven. This mystic talisman was
the arcanum of his wisdom, felicity, and grandeur; by this he governed
and prospered. In consequence of a temporary lapse from virtue, he
lost the ring in the sea, and was at once reduced to the level of
ordinary men. By penitence and prayer he made his peace with the
Deity, was permitted to find his ring again in the belly of a fish,
and thus recovered his celestial gifts. That he might not utterly lose
them again, he communicated to others the secret of the marvellous
ring.
This symbolical seal we are told was sacrilegiously used by the
Mahometan infidels, and before them by the Arabian idolaters, and
before them by the Hebrews, for "diabolical enterprises and abominable
superstitions.
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