, or immediately after it
was dedicated, were other gigantic works, including the royal palace,
which it took thirteen years to complete, and upon which, as upon the
Sacred House, Syrian artists and workmen were employed. The principal
building was only one hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five broad,
and forty-five feet high, in three stories, with a grand porch supported
on lofty pillars; but connected with the palace were other edifices to
support the magnificence in which the king lived with his court and his
harem. Around the tower of the House of David were hung the famous
golden shields, one thousand in number, which had been made for the
body-guard, with other glittering ornaments, which were likened by the
poets to the neck of a bride decked with rays of golden coins. In the
great Judgment Hall, built of cedar and squared stone, was the throne of
the monarch, made of ivory, inlaid with gold. A special mansion was
erected for Solomon's Egyptian queen, of squared stones twelve to
fifteen feet in length. Connected with these various palaces were
extensive gardens constructed at great expense, filled with all the
triumphs of horticultural art, and watered by streams from vast
reservoirs. In these the luxurious king and court could wander among
beds of spices and flowers and fruits. But these did not content the
royal family. A summer palace was erected on the heights of Mount
Lebanon, having gardens filled with everything which could delight the
eye or captivate the senses. Here, surrounded with learned men, women,
and courtiers, with bands of music, costly litters, horses and chariots,
and every luxury which unbounded means could command, the magnificent
monarch beguiled his leisure hours, abandoned equally to pleasure and
study,--for his inquiring mind sought to master all the knowledge that
was known, especially in the realm of natural history, since "he was
wiser than all men, and spake of trees, from the cedar-tree that is on
Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall." We can get
some idea of the expenses of his household, in the fact that it daily
consumed sixty measures of flour and meal and thirty oxen and one
hundred sheep, besides venison, game, and fatted fowls. The king never
appeared in public except with crown and sceptre, in royal robes
redolent of the richest perfumes of India and Arabia, and sparkling with
gold and gems. He lived in a constant blaze of splendor, whether
travell