King Solomon Trivia
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50 free King Solomon trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This King Solomon trivia quiz covers the biblical king remembered for wisdom, wealth and a temple that stood for four centuries. The easy questions cover his father, his mother, the building he raised in Jerusalem, the famous ruling over a disputed baby and the royal visitor from Sheba. From there the quiz moves through the story told in Kings and Chronicles: the dream at Gibeon, the priest and prophet who anointed him, Hiram of Tyre and the cedars, the seven-year build, the palace on Ophel, the fleets to Ophir and Tarshish, the 700 wives and the foreign gods that split the kingdom under Rehoboam. The hard end covers the legends and the scholarship: the books he is said to have written, the shamir worm that cut stone, Asmodeus and the ring, the genie in the bottle, the hoopoe who found Sheba, Menelik and the Ark in Ethiopia, the ants and the wind in the Quran, Handel's oratorio, the Spanish navigator who named an archipelago after him and why archaeologists still argue about whether the empire was as grand as described. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries for Solomon, the Judgement of Solomon and Solomon's Temple before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Bible, Old Testament and ancient history quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who was King Solomon's father?
David
David wanted to build the Temple himself, but in Chronicles God refuses him because he has shed too much blood in war, and the task passes to his son Solomon.
Q 02Who was Solomon's mother?
Bathsheba
Bathsheba's first child by the king died after a week's illness; years later she went to the dying king's bedside and held him to his oath that her son Solomon would reign.
Q 03By what other name is Solomon known in the Bible?
Jedidiah
Jedidiah, 'beloved of the Lord', was a second name sent from God through Nathan at Solomon's birth, because, the text says, the Lord loved the child.
Q 04In the Sermon on the Mount, which flowers does Jesus say were dressed better than Solomon in all his glory?
Lilies
Lilies: 'Consider the lilies of the field', Jesus says. They neither toil nor spin, yet the richest king in the Bible was never dressed as well as a wild flower.
Q 05What did Solomon ask for when God offered him anything he wanted in a dream?
Wisdom to rule his people
Wisdom to rule his people: God was so pleased Solomon had not asked for long life, riches or his enemies' deaths that he promised him the riches and honour as well.
Q 06In the Judgment of Solomon, what did the king order done with the disputed baby?
Cut in two with a sword
Cut in two with a sword was only a test: one woman begged him to give the living child to her rival instead, and Solomon declared her the true mother.
Q 07Which foreign ruler visited Solomon bearing gold, spices and precious stones?
The Queen of Sheba
The Queen of Sheba had heard of Solomon's fame and came to test him with hard questions; after his answers and the sight of his court, the Bible says, there was no more spirit in her.
Q 08According to the biblical account, how many wives did Solomon have?
700
700 wives, each called a princess, is the count in 1 Kings. Deuteronomy had told Israel's kings not to take many wives; Solomon broke the rule hundreds of times over.
Q 09Which older half-brother of Solomon proclaimed himself king while their father lay dying?
Adonijah
Adonijah was hosting his own coronation feast when a blast of trumpets told the city that Solomon had just been anointed; his guests fled, and he ran to cling to the altar.
Q 10In the anthem sung at every British coronation since 1727, which priest anoints Solomon king?
Zadok
Zadok: the anthem Zadok the Priest was written for George II's coronation, and in 1992 its soaring opening was reworked into the UEFA Champions League anthem.
Q 11Solomon's Temple took seven years to build; what took him thirteen?
His palace
His palace took thirteen years, and 1 Kings says he levied forced labour to build both houses; after his death his subjects begged his son to lighten the yoke.
Q 12Chronicles sets Solomon's Temple on which mount, traditionally where Abraham bound Isaac?
Mount Moriah
Mount Moriah: the site had been a threshing floor, which Solomon's father insisted on buying at full price because he would not offer God a sacrifice that cost him nothing.
Q 13Which Phoenician king supplied Solomon with materials and workmen for the Temple?
Hiram of Tyre
Hiram of Tyre floated cedar and cypress down the coast as rafts in return for wheat and oil; Solomon later paid him with twenty towns in Galilee, which Hiram inspected and did not like.
Q 21In Ethiopian tradition, which son of Solomon founded the country's royal line?
Menelik I
Menelik I's line, Ethiopia's emperors claimed, ran unbroken down to Haile Selassie, whose 1955 constitution wrote the descent from Solomon into law.
Q 22According to Ethiopian legend, what sacred object did Solomon's son carry off to Axum?
The Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant: in the Kebra Nagast his young companions smuggle it out of the Temple without telling him, and a chapel in Axum is still said to hold it.
Q 23In the Quran, which small creature warns its fellows to hide from Solomon's approaching army?
An ant
An ant: Solomon overheard the warning, understood it and smiled, then thanked God for the gift, and the chapter of the Quran that tells the story is named The Ant.
Q 141 Kings puts Solomon's yearly income of gold at how many talents, a number better known from Revelation?
666
666 talents is the haul 1 Kings records shortly before Solomon's fall; Deuteronomy had warned Israel's kings not to heap up silver and gold, and Revelation later gave the number to its beast.
Q 15When ten tribes left Solomon's son to form the northern kingdom of Israel, which kingdom stayed loyal?
Judah
Judah: after Solomon's forty-year reign it kept Jerusalem, the Temple and his dynasty for more than three centuries, outlasting the larger northern kingdom, which fell to Assyria.
Q 16Which of Solomon's sons succeeded him and lost ten tribes to Jeroboam?
Rehoboam
Rehoboam was asked to ease his father's forced labour and answered that he would make the yoke heavier, with scorpions for whips; the northern tribes walked out on the spot.
Q 17According to the Bible, why did God divide Solomon's kingdom after his death?
He turned to other gods
He turned to other gods: 1 Kings says his many wives won the ageing king over to their deities, and God told him the kingdom would be torn away, but only from his son.
Q 18Which three biblical books has Solomon traditionally been considered the author of?
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs bear his name by tradition, but Ecclesiastes uses Persian loanwords, which dates its writing to centuries after Solomon's time.
Q 19In Dante's Divine Comedy, where does the poet meet the spirit of Solomon?
In Paradise
In Paradise: Dante meets Solomon in the Heaven of the Sun, calls his the fairest light in a circle of twelve wise souls, and has him explain how the blessed will shine after the resurrection.
Q 20Which conqueror destroyed Solomon's Temple and carried Jerusalem's people into exile?
Nebuchadnezzar II
Nebuchadnezzar II's army burned the Temple and marched Jerusalem's elite to Babylon; about fifty years later Cyrus of Persia took Babylon and let the exiles go home to rebuild.
Q 24In the Quran, which force of nature is made subject to Solomon, covering a month's journey in a morning?
The wind
The wind obeyed him, and so did the jinn, who the Quran says went on labouring after Solomon died leaning on his staff, until a creature gnawed it through and his body fell.
Q 25Rabbinic legend says Solomon cut the Temple's stones without iron, using the shamir, usually described as which creature?
A worm
A worm: the shamir's touch was said to split rock, and Solomon's men won it by covering a wild bird's nest with glass, then seizing the worm when the bird fetched it to break through.
Q 26In Jewish legend, which demon king flung Solomon far from Jerusalem and sat on his throne?
Asmodeus
Asmodeus, freed from his chains by a trick, hurled the king away and reigned in his place, while Solomon went from door to door as a beggar insisting that he had once been king.
Q 27What is the Seal of Solomon?
A legendary signet ring
A legendary signet ring: engraved with the name of God, it was said to let Solomon command demons, and its star-shaped design became a favourite amulet of medieval magicians.
Q 28In One Thousand and One Nights, who frees a genie that Solomon had sealed in a bottle?
A fisherman
A fisherman hauls the jar up in his net; the freed genie vows to kill him, so he asks how anything so huge ever fitted inside, and traps it again when it shrinks back in to show him.
Q 29In the Quran and in Jewish legend, which bird brings Solomon news of a distant queen and her rich land?
The hoopoe
The hoopoe was missing when Solomon inspected his birds, and in the Quran he vows to punish it; it flies in just in time with news of a queen whose people bow to the sun.
Q 30In 1 Kings, twelve statues of which animal stand on the six steps of Solomon's ivory throne?
Lions
Lions: later legend made the throne a machine whose golden beasts each stretched out a limb to help the king up the steps, and which lamed a pharaoh who did not know how it worked.