To the tests and proofs of Solomon's wisdom recorded in 1 Kings iii. and x. many additions were made by rabbinical tradition, mostly derived from Parsî scriptures. The famous Ring of Solomon is the symbol of sovereignty over the part of the earth owned by God given by him to the first man King Yima--"Then I, Ahura Mazda, brought two implements unto him, a golden ring and a poniard inlaid with gold. Behold, here Yima bears the royal sway!" (Vendîdâd, Farg. ii. 5). When Yima pressed the earth with this ring, the genius of the Earth, Aramaîti, responded to his wish and order. The ring represented Yima's "glory" (in Avestan phrase), his divine potency, lost when he yielded to a temptation of the devil, and Solomon also lost his ring with which, as we have seen (ante IV.) his "glory" and royal sway passed to the (Persian) devil Asmodeus. This occurred in a trial of wits, Asmodeus propounding hard questions, which Solomon was able to answer until, proudly thinking he could answer by his unaided intellect, he laid aside his ring, at the challenge of Asmodeus. These hard questions are found in an ancient legend of a similar contest between the devil and Zoroaster, and are alluded to as "malignant riddles." Zoroaster met the devil "unshaken by the hardness of his malignant riddles," and swinging "stones as big as a house," which he had obtained from the Maker,--tables of the divine law, and possibly origin of the stones which the devil challenged Jesus to turn into bread. There are Avestan elements in the legend of the temptation of Jesus that do not appear in the legends of Solomon. In Parsî belief the land of demons on earth is Mâzana. From that region they issue to inflict diseases, especially blindness and deafness. In that region is an "exceeding high mountain," Damâvand, to which the great demon Azi Dahâka was bound by Feridun who overcame him. This demon was called "the murderer,"--the epithet mysteriously applied by Jesus to the devil (John viii. 44). After tempting and supplanting King Yima he ruled over the world for a millennium in great splendour, and the chief of devils tempts Zoroaster with that glory. "Renounce the good law of the worshippers of Mazda, and thou shalt gain such a boon as the Murderer gained, the ruler of nations." Thus in answer to him said Zoroaster, "No, never will I renounce the good law of the worshippers of Mazda, though my body, my life, my soul, should burst." Again said the guileful one, the Maker of the evil world, "By whose word wilt thou strike, by whose word wilt thou repel, by whose weapon will the good creatures (strike and repel) my creation?" Thus, in answer, said Zoroaster, "The sacred mortar, the sacred cup, the Haoma [the sacramental juice] the Words taught by Mazda, these are my weapons." [45]