Editing Solomon (section)

===Arguments in favour of biblical description===
[[File:Solomon's Wealth and Wisdom.jpg|right|thumb|Solomon's Wealth and Wisdom, as in 1{{nbsp}}Kings 3:12–13. Illustration from a 1896 [[Bible card]].]]

[[André Lemaire]] states in ''Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple'' that the principal points of the biblical tradition of Solomon are generally trustworthy,<ref name="Ancient Israel p113">{{Citation|last=Shanks|first=Hershel|title=Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple|page=113|year=1999}}</ref> although elsewhere he writes that he could find no substantiating archaeological evidence that supports the Queen of Sheba's visit to king Solomon, saying that the earliest records of trans-Arabian caravan voyages from Tayma and Sheba unto the Middle-Euphrates etc. occurred in the mid-8th century BCE,<ref>See: [http://www.digitorient.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Lemaire%20South%20Arabia.pdf Lemaire, South Arabia]. In [[André Lemaire]]'s own words: "The first mention of Sheba in Neo-Assyrian texts is to be dated mid-8th century BCE with the story of a caravan of 200 camels coming from Tayma and Sheba to Hindanu (Middle-Euphrates) (Cavigneaux–Ismaïl 1990: 339–357; Frame 1995: 300; Younger 2003: 279–282; Holladay 2006: 319–321)."</ref> placing a possible visit from the Queen of Sheba to Jerusalem around this time—some 250 years later than the timeframe traditionally given for king Solomon's reign.<ref>[[André Lemaire]], ''The Queen of Sheba and the Trade Between South Arabia and Judah'', pub. in ''Bayn ʻEver LaʻArav: Contacts between Arabic Literature and Jewish Literature in the Middle Ages and Modern Times'', volume 6; A Collection of Studies Dedicated to Prof. Yosef Tobi on the Occasion of his Retirement, ed. Ali A. Hussein and Ayelet Oettinger (Haifa: University of Haifa Press, 2013), xi–xxxiv</ref> Seventeen years later, traces of cinnamon were found in [[Phoenicia]]n clay flasks from three small sites in the Israeli coastal plain dating from the 10th century BCE. The authors suggested that trade routes with South Asia existed much earlier than previously thought.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gilboa|first1=Ayelet|last2=Namdar|first2=Dvory|date=2015|title=On the Beginnings of South Asian Spice Trade with the Mediterranean Region: A Review|url=https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_rc.57.18562|journal=Radiocarbon|language=en|volume=57|issue=2|pages=265–283|doi=10.2458/azu_rc.57.18562|bibcode=2015Radcb..57..265G |s2cid=55719842|issn=0033-8222}}</ref>

[[Kenneth Kitchen]] argues that Solomon ruled over a comparatively wealthy "mini-empire", rather than a small city-state, and considers 666 gold talents a modest amount of money. Kitchen calculates that over 30 years, such a kingdom might have accumulated up to 500 tons of gold, which is small compared to other examples, such as the 1,180 tons of gold that [[Alexander the Great]] took from Susa.{{Sfn | Kitchen |2003|p=135}} Similarly, Kitchen{{sfn|Kitchen|2003|p=123}} and others consider the temple of Solomon a reasonable and typically sized structure for the region at the time. Dever states "that we now have direct Bronze and Iron Age parallels for every feature of the 'Solomonic temple' as described in the Hebrew Bible".{{sfn|Dever|2001|p=145}}