Abstract

The goal of this article is to comparatively illustrate the most notable Late Antique and medieval traditions regarding the signet ring of Solomon. I shall be focusing on its constituent material and on its possible symbolic relevance, while also exploring the main functions and powers attributed to the object, in order to distinguish the original features attributed to it from later accretions. I shall begin with some famous descriptions by Christian pilgrims visiting Jerusalem during the fourth century and compare them with other accounts mostly pertaining to the Islamic tradition, with a few incursions into the Jewish world. Despite the successive changes transforming the ring from an exorcist device to a sort of tool for universal translation, and the undeniably divergent aspects peculiar to each religious tradition, the sources analysed show a sort of subterranean continuity developing around the intrinsic power of certain metals (such as ḥashmal, electron and nuḥās).