@ Hassan
One more question. Presumably this warrior King with his huge army and rows of soldiers, Jinn and animals must have spent a lot of time fighting other Kingdoms. Why is there no mention in the accounts of neighbouring Kingdoms of great battles with an amazing powerful King who had magic forces in his control? And I'm not trying to be funny here - but did God make all reference to him in the writings of neighbouring Kingdoms disappear too?
OK, here's my *SPECULATION*:
If other mighty nations were, by force, made into vassal states under the command of a King they hated and this king ruled for a very brief time in history, say 20 years, why should they keep any records of this humiliation of their nations? It's an ugly memory they could have felt urged to forget...
It's the same type of *SPECULATION* I use to try to understand the complete lack of any evidence of an Exodus... why would the Egyptians be excited about recording their *humiliation* at the hands of the God of their LOWLY SLAVES?
When Ramses went to battle with the Hittites, he came back bragging about his *decisive victory*... that's according to the Egyptian records... we learn the truth only from Hittite records: no one won. But to Ramses, his failure to crush the Hittites in that battle was so humiliating he even boasted about his victory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_KadeshQuite true, Debunker, though even your conclusion that "the Kingdom the like of which will never be granted to anyone after him" - was only a Kingdom of Jinn and talking animals and wind etc... and NOT territorial - is in fact also speculation - is it not?
What I said was: He could have had a big territorial kingdom, but that's NOT what made his kingdom *special* in the sense that no one else can have!
Now, the verses I shown you before:
Surah Sad (#38)
قَالَ رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِي وَهَبْ لِي مُلْكًا لَّا يَنبَغِي لِأَحَدٍ مِّنْ بَعْدِي إِنَّكَ أَنتَ الْوَهَّابُ ?35? فَسَخَّرْنَا لَهُ الرِّيحَ تَجْرِي بِأَمْرِهِ رُخَاء حَيْثُ أَصَابَ ?36? وَالشَّيَاطِينَ كُلَّ بَنَّاء وَغَوَّاصٍ ?37? وَآخَرِينَ مُقَرَّنِينَ فِي الْأَصْفَادِ ?38? هَذَا عَطَاؤُنَا فَامْنُنْ أَوْ أَمْسِكْ بِغَيْرِ حِسَابٍ ?39? وَإِنَّ لَهُ عِندَنَا لَزُلْفَى وَحُسْنَ مَآبٍ ?40? Solomon's "special" reign, that no one could ever have was his magical reign over the demons and the elements as the verses above clearly show...
It is no more or less valid than the speculation that it was a huge territorial Kingdom.
In fact I would say that the assumption it was a huge territorial Kingdom is a better assumption to make based on the way the Qur'an describes it - and the fact that he had such a huge army that he regularly reviewed and went out marching with.
This seems to suggests they conquered territory?
Surely they were not just playing war games in the desert?
The large territorial kingdom can indeed be concluded from the fact that he had a powerful army. However, like Yemen, the other nations could have been vassal states as well. And its size is NOT what made his kingdom special that no one could have after him.
In fact, the story of the hoopoe bird tells us that even mighty Solomon with his army of demons, without God's will, didn't even know that there was a mighty kingdom in Yemen... he had to wait for a little bird to tell him about it and the bird even bragged about it that he knew what Solomon didn't!
I would speculate that Solomon's kingdom was limited to Egypt, the Levant, Babylon and later Yemen. Basically, the areas where God wanted him to be a prophet King... far away nations could have had their own prophets.
But I would think he had legendry amounts of treasures and lived in a magical palace, no one could ever have after him. That's because it's powerful demons who built his palace and monuments... it's demons who brought him treasures... so his palace/monuments/treasures were, in a sense, magical and thus part of the special things that were given to him and only him.
It even says in the Qur'an that Sulayman threatened to march all the way to Sheba in Yemen with a huge army to overwhelm and destroy her kingdom. (a long way to go for him - and her! She did after all decide to go all that way to submit to him - again which indicates he had some great reputation that had spread as far as Yemen.)
To me - and to many others down the centuries - this sounds like he had a huge territorial kingdom - as well as a magical one.
At the very least your assumption it was not is no more valid than the assumption it was - wouldn't you agree?
You assumption is a valid conclusion..
I only disagree to its size being something no one else can achieve (the story of a helpless hoopoe tells us the size of his kingdom was not the special thing about his reign, in addition, verses 38:35-40 tell us that the
magical elements of his kingdom is what was special and was given only to him).
Topic: The Story of Sulayman