A third Solomon, distinct from both the king and the sage, grew in legend: Solomon the master of hidden powers. Its roots lie partly in the biblical wisdom over nature, Solomon is said to have spoken of trees and beasts and birds, and it flowered in post-biblical Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition into the figure of a ruler who commanded spirits.
In Islam, Sulayman is a prophet and king to whom God gave dominion over the jinn, the wind, and the speech of animals, together with a signet ring by which he ruled them; the Qur'an tells of his hoopoe messenger and the throne of the Queen of Sheba (Bilqis), and warns against the sorcery falsely attributed to him. Jewish legend elaborated his mastery of demons through a magic ring bearing the divine name, the Seal of Solomon.
From this soil grew a long tradition of Western magical texts fathered upon him, the Testament of Solomon, and the medieval and early-modern grimoires such as the Key of Solomon and the Lesser Key with its catalogue of spirits bound by the wise king. These works are the products of the traditions that produced them, not of Solomon, but they show how completely his name came to stand for the command of the unseen, a legacy this atlas also traces through its entries on the grimoires and the seal.