[395] Josephus says that she introduced the balsam plant into Palestine, which, in later years at Jericho, became a great source of revenue. Jer. viii. 22, xlvi. 11; Ezek. xxvii. 17; Josephus, _Antt._; VIII. vi. 6, XIV. iv. 1, XV. iv. 2; Pliny, _H. N._, xii. 54, xiii. 9 (but see Gen. xliii. 11). [396] Psalm lxxii. 15. Spices, Herod., iii. 107-113. For one hundred and twenty talents we should probably read twenty (comp. Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. vi. 6), _i.e._, twelve thousand pounds. Into the riddles of Balkis (1 Kings x. 1, "hard questions"; LXX., αἰνίγματα), and all the strange Talmudic and Arabian legends which have gathered round her visit, we need not enter. I may perhaps refer to my little monograph on Solomon (pp. 134-37), in the Men of the Bible series. [397] The 666 gold talents of his revenue are estimated at £3,613,500, and this is described as _his own_ revenue, exclusive of tolls, tributes, etc. (1 Kings x. 15). Presents reached him from "kings of the mingled people" (Jer. xxv. 24), Pachas of the country (פֶחָה Ezra v. 6; Neh. v. 14). [398] See Weil, _Biblische Legenden_; D'Herbelot, _Bibl. Oriental_, s.v. Soliman ben-Daoud; Qur'an, _Suras_ xxii., xxvii., xxviii., xxxiv. "Suleyman" means "Little Solomon," a term of affection. [399] Stanley, _Lectures_, ii. 166, 167. CHAPTER XXI. _HOLLOW PROSPERITY._ 1 KINGS xi. "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity."--ECCLES. i. 2. "At every draught more large and large they grow A bloated mass of rank unwieldy woe, Till, sapp'd their strength, and every part unsound, Down, down they sink, and spread a ruin round." GOLDSMITH. There was a _ver rongeur_ at the root of all Solomon's prosperity. His home was afflicted with the curse of his polygamy, his kingdom with the curse of his despotism. Failure is stamped upon the issues of his life. 1. His Temple was a wonder of the world; yet his own reign was scarcely over before it was plundered by the Egyptian king who had overthrown the feeble dynasty on alliance with which he had trusted. Under later kings its secret chambers were sometimes desecrated, sometimes deserted. It failed to exercise the unique influence in support of the worship of Jehovah for which it had been designed. Some of Solomon's successors confronted it with a rival temple, and a rival high priest, of Baal, and suffered atrocious emblems of heathen nature-worship to profane its courts. He himself became an apostate from the high theocratic ideal which had inspired its origin.