Solomon's Fame: the Queen of Sheba and Three Books — Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes
The kingdom at its height: peace from Tiphsah to Gaza, everyone under his own vine. The Queen of Sheba arrives to test the rumours with riddles, and Solomon leaves three books that entered the Bible.
These were the years later remembered as the model: "Judah and Israel dwelt in safety, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon." No wars, no rivals; trading fleets, cavalry, tribute from neighbouring kings, a palace that took thirteen years to build.
Word reached the Queen of Sheba, and she came "to test him with riddles," with a great caravan of camels, spices, gold and precious stones. She spoke with him about everything on her mind, and there was nothing he could not explain. Seeing his house, his table, his servants and his ascent to the Temple, she said plainly: I did not believe until I came and saw — and not half was told me.
What survives from those years is not only palaces. Three books of the Bible bear Solomon's name: Proverbs, which begins with the fear of Heaven and ends with the hymn to the woman of valour; the Song of Songs, a love poem tradition reads as the dialogue between God and Israel; and Ecclesiastes, the bleakest book in the Bible, the verdict of a man who had everything.
The midrash arranges them by age: the Song of Songs in his youth, Proverbs in his maturity, Ecclesiastes in his old age.