The Temple in Jerusalem
Solomon's most significant achievement, as the biblical narrative records it, was the building of the First Temple in Jerusalem. David had gathered materials for the temple as a permanent dwelling for the Ark of the Covenant, and Solomon brought the work to completion with the help of an architect sent by the Phoenician king Hiram I of Tyre.
The Temple stood at the center of a larger program of construction. Solomon raised an extensive royal palace complex in Jerusalem over a period of thirteen years, founded colonies that doubled as trading posts and outposts, and strengthened cities including Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. His reign was marked by great wealth, including annual tribute of gold, and by a profitable trading relationship with Tyre that sent joint expeditions to Tarshish and Ophir for luxury goods.
Wisdom and the Judgment of the Two Mothers
The books of Kings emphasize Solomon's renowned wisdom, granted in answer to his prayer at the beginning of his reign. The best-known illustration is his judgment between two women who each claimed to be the mother of the same child: he ordered the child divided, and the true mother revealed herself by her compassion in surrendering her claim to spare the child's life.
The fame of his wisdom and wealth is said to have reached the Queen of Sheba, who travelled to visit him bearing gifts of gold, spices, and precious stones.
The Wisdom Writings
Tradition credits Solomon with the authorship of several of the wisdom books of Scripture: the Book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. Some traditions also attribute the Book of Wisdom to him, although scholars date that composition much later, to the 2nd century BC.
Veneration as a Forefather of Christ
In the Orthodox Church Solomon is commemorated among the holy forefathers and ancestors of Christ. The Sunday of the Holy Forefathers, kept on the second Sunday before the Nativity, honors the Old Testament ancestors of Christ — patriarchs and matriarchs, prophets, and the kings and judges of Israel, among them David and Solomon — recognizing the faith and righteousness of those who lived before and under the Law as predecessors in the work of salvation. The biblical account also records a later turning of Solomon's heart toward the gods of his foreign wives, on account of which the kingdom was decreed to be divided after his death.
