“Very good,” spoke the king, “let the son marry the daughter and use this money to buy a house for them, and land to plant crops, and cows to milk, and a bed to rest, and all that is needed for a young couple to set up house—for married life is dear.  May God bless them with a fruitful life and many children.”

The moral of this tale is the ideal of how money should be used according to the custom in Islam.  Men should work for their keep.  Even rulers should not live off the people’s taxes.  King David, for one, was a blacksmith.  Money should be used to start young people off in life, so that their children may not grow up in poverty.

The Three Sons

At another time three sons came to King Solomon, each of them claiming their father’s inheritance.  The king ordered his scribe to read the father’s will.  It ran as follows: “My whole estate I bequeath to my only son.  My wife was unfaithful to me twice.  Only one of her three sons is mine.”  The will gave no name and no indication as to which of the three boys was the heir.

King Solomon ordered the dead body of the father to be hung up in a tree.  Then he encouraged the young men to shoot at it with arrows.  Two of the boys actually hit the body with their arrows, but the eldest wept and refused to shoot, crying: “It is not worth desecrating my father’s body by mutilating it.  Let them have the money; I wish no part of it.”  “No,” spoke the king, “you are the only true son.”

King Solomon and the Ants

One day while traveling across his vast empire, King Solomon descended from a narrow pass surrounded by steep rocks into a wide plain: the Valley of the Ants.  The valley was dotted with anthills of all shapes and sizes, while straight paths crossed the valley from one end to another, along which ants of all sizes and colors hurried in pursuit of their many urgent errands.

Careful not to step on any of these busy ants, King Solomon slowly walked up to the largest and tallest of all the ant buildings, which stood right in the middle of this ant city.  He called for the King of the Ants, who appeared immediately as he had already been informed of Solomon’s arrival.