Summary: | Fifty six magical gemstones discovered in Egypt and dating from the 3rd century CE represent Solomon as a triumphant horse rider piercing and killing by his lance a lying female demon, probably the famous Lilith. It is now agreed that the gemstones were used for banishing the child-killing demon and worn by pregnant women. The Testament of Solomon, a biblical pseudepigraphon from the Late Antiquity also mentions an avatar of the child-killing demon, namely Obyzuth. The present paper shows that the author of the Testament was highly aware of the existence of the gemstones, but changed in a subtle way their initial message out of polemical reasons. The connection between the gemstones and the Testament is also very valuable as a means of dating the controversial pseudepigraphon in the last decades of the 4th century CE.
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