Solomon followed the advice of Sachr. A raven came, and fluttered some time round the cover, and seeing that she could not reach her eggs, she vanished, and returned shortly with a stone in her beak, named Samur or Schamir; and no sooner had she touched the crystal therewith, than it clave asunder. “Whence hast thou this stone?” asked Solomon of the raven. “It comes from a mountain in the far west,” replied the bird. Solomon commanded a Jinn to follow the raven to the mountain, and to bring him more of these stones. Then he released Sachr as he had promised. When the chains were taken off him, he uttered a loud cry of joy, which, in Solomon’s ears, bore an ominous sound as of mocking laughter. When the Jinn returned with the stone Schamir, Solomon mounted a Jinn and was borne back to Jerusalem, where he distributed the stones amongst the Jinns, and they were able to cut the rocks for the temple without noise.[663] Solomon also made an ark of the covenant ten ells square, and he sought to bring it into the Holy of Holies that he had made; and when he sought to bring the ark through the door of the temple, the door was ten ells wide. Now, that was the width of the ark, and ten ells will not go through ten ells. Then, when Solomon saw that the ark would not pass through the door, he was ashamed and cried, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and the King of Glory shall come in!” Then the gates tottered, and would have fallen on his head to punish what they supposed to be a blasphemy, for the doors thought that by “the King of Glory” he meant himself; and they cried to him in anger, “Who is the King of Glory?” and he answered, “It is the Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory.” And because the doors were so zealous for the honour of God, the Lord promised them that they should never fall into the hands of the enemies of Israel. Therefore, when the temple was burnt and the treasures were carried into Babylon, the gates sank into the earth and vanished. And to this the prophet Jeremiah refers (Lament, ii. 9).[664] Solomon also built him a palace, with great riches in gold, and silver, and precious stones, like no king that was before him. Many of the halls had crystal floors and crystal roofs. He had a fountain of liquid brass.[665] He had also a carpet five hundred parasangs in length; and whenever the carpet was spread, three hundred thrones of gold and silver were placed on it, and Solomon bade the birds of the air spread their wings over them for a shade.[666] He built a throne for himself of sandal wood, encrusted with gold and precious stones. 4. THE TRAVELS OF SOLOMON.