reigns found its immortal expositors in those Hebrew prophets who rank foremost among the teachers of mankind.[437] But as for Solomon himself it is a melancholy thought that he is one of the three or four of whose salvation the Fathers and others have openly ventured to doubt.[438] The discussion of such a question is, indeed, wholly absurd and profitless, and is only here alluded to in order to illustrate the completeness of Solomon's fall. As the book of Ecclesiastes is certainly not by him it can throw no light on the moods of his latter days, unless it be conceivable that it represents some faint breath of olden tradition. The early commentators acquitted or condemned him as though they sat on the judgment-seat of the Almighty. They would have shown more wisdom if they had admitted that such decisions are--fortunately for all men--beyond the scope of human judges. Happily for us God, not man, is the judge, and He looks down on earth "With larger other eyes than ours To make allowance for us all." Orcagna was wiser when, in his great picture in the Campo Santo at Pisa and in the Strozzi Chapel at Florence, he represented Solomon rising out of his sepulchre in robe and crown at the trump of the archangel, uncertain whether he is to turn to the right hand or to the left. And Dante, as all men know, joins Solomon in Paradise with the Four Great Schoolmen. The great mediæval poet of Latin Christianity did not side with St. Augustine and the Latin Fathers against the wise king, but with St. Chrysostom and the Greek Fathers for him. He did so because he accepted St. Bernard's mystical interpretation of the Song of Songs:-- "La quinta luce, ch'è tra noi più bella Spira di tale amor, che tutto il mondo Laggiù ne gola di saver novella. Entro v'è l'alta mente, u' sì profondo Saver fu messo, che si il vero è vero, A veder tanto non surse il secondo."[439] There is a famous legend in the Qur'an about the death of Solomon.[440] "Work ye righteousness O ye family of David; for I see that which ye do. And we made the wind subject unto Solomon.... And we made a fountain of molten brass to flow for him. And some of the genii were obliged to work in his presence by the will of his Lord. They made for him whatever he pleased of palaces, and statues, and large dishes like fishponds, and caldrons standing firm on their trivets; and we said, Work righteousness, O family of David, with thanksgiving; for few of my servants are thankful. And when we had decreed that Solomon should die, nothing discovered his death unto them, except the creeping thing of the earth that gnawed his staff. And when his body fell down, the genii plainly perceived that if they had known that which is secret they had not continued in a vile punishment."[441]