The Authentic Orthography
שְׁלֹמֹה Šəlōmōh
King, Sage · Third king of Israel, builder of the Temple
The Authentic Orthography
King, Sage · Third king of Israel, builder of the Temple
Unicode restoration and ASCII comparison
שְׁלֹמֹה
The name in its original Canaanite form. Šəlōmōh (שְׁלֹמֹה) is attested in the source tradition — “Third king of Israel, builder of the Temple”. Its macron-length vowels carry the full phonetic and orthographic weight of the source tradition.
solomon
Reduced to plain solomon, the name loses everything that made it specific: macron-length vowels. What remains is an ASCII string that machines can parse but that no longer speaks with its original voice.
Šəlōmōh
The Unicode restoration recovers what ASCII flattened. Šəlōmōh restores macron-length vowels, returning the name to its original written dignity. The domain encodes to Punycode, but the browser displays the truth.
Šəlōmōh.com → xn--lmh-qxab0ju2f.com
The non-ASCII characters in Šəlōmōh are encoded while the ASCII remains visible. To the DNS, it is Punycode. To humanity, it is Šəlōmōh.
How Šəlōmōh travels from ancient script to the modern URL
Hebrew Šəlōmōh; the name is associated with šālōm “peace, wholeness"; the builder of the First Temple.
King, Sage
The Unicode restoration Šəlōmōh uses registrable Latin diacritics; the Ugaritic form is not registrable in .com.
How Šəlōmōh was spoken
Sage, Trader, Judge
Šəlōmōh is the king who turns peace into architecture. Son of David, he inherits a united kingdom and spends it on cedar, gold, and wisdom. His Temple in Jerusalem becomes the fixed center of Israelite worship; his judgment becomes proverbial; his trade fleets reach the edges of the known world. Yet his story ends in fracture: the kingdom he built splits the moment he dies.
A house of cedar, stone, and gold for the name of YHWH, built with Phoenician artisans and dedicated with fire and cloud (1 Kings 6–8).
His prayer at Gibeon asks for wisdom, and his famous verdict — to cut the disputed child in two — reveals the true mother (1 Kings 3).
A navy at Ezion-Geber and an alliance with Hiram of Tyre bring gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks from Ophir (1 Kings 9–10).
Tradition ascribes to him the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs — wisdom literature that ranges from proverb to eros to despair.
Stories of Šəlōmōh
Šəlōmōh's mythology is the story of wisdom tested by excess. He begins with a prayer for understanding and ends with idolatrous shrines built for his foreign wives. His reign is Israel's golden age and its cautionary tale at once.
When Solomon becomes king, God appears to him at Gibeon and offers whatever he asks. Solomon does not ask for riches or long life but for 'an understanding mind to govern your people.' Pleased, God grants him wisdom and adds wealth and honor besides. The episode establishes Solomon as the archetype of the wise ruler.
Two women come before the king, each claiming to be the mother of a living infant. Solomon orders the child cut in two. One woman pleads for the baby's life even if it means giving him up; the other agrees to the division. Solomon gives the child to the one willing to lose him, recognizing true motherhood by self-sacrifice rather than claim.
Solomon contracts with Hiram of Tyre for cedar and skilled workers. The Temple takes seven years to build: an outer court, a hekhal (sanctuary), and a debir (holy of holies) housing the ark. At the dedication, fire descends and the glory-cloud fills the house; Solomon kneels and prays that God will hear prayers directed toward this place, including the prayers of foreigners and exiles.
The queen of Sheba journeys to Jerusalem with a caravan of spices, gold, and precious stones to test Solomon's wisdom with hard questions. She leaves astonished, praising both his insight and the God who blessed him. The encounter makes Solomon a figure of international prestige and marks the southern trade route as a channel of legend.
In his old age, Solomon's foreign wives turn his heart after their gods, and he builds high places for Chemosh, Milcom, and Astarte. YHWH tears the kingdom from his son, leaving only one tribe for David's sake. The golden age ends not in invasion but in internal apostasy, and the united monarchy dies with its builder.
Šəlōmōh is the king who gets exactly what he asks for and then loses himself in what he does not need. His wisdom is real — it cuts through lies and builds a temple — but it cannot protect him from his own appetites. In that, he is a mirror for every culture that confuses accumulation with meaning.
Enter Extended Lore