34وَلَقَد فَتَنّا سُلَيمانَ وَأَلقَينا عَلىٰ كُرسِيِّهِ جَسَدًا ثُمَّ أَنابَMuhammad AsadBut [ere this], indeed, We had tried Solomon by placing upon his throne a [lifeless] body;1 and thereupon he turned [towards Us; and]To explain this verse, some of the commentators advance the most fantastic stories, almost all of them going back to Talmudic sources. Razi rejects them all, maintaining that they are unworthy of serious consideration. Instead, he plausibly suggests that the "body" (jasad) upon Solomon's throne is an allusion to his own body, and - metonymically - to his kingly power, which was bound to remain "lifeless" so long as it was not inspired by God-willed ethical values. (It is to be borne in mind that in classical Arabic a person utterly weakened by illness, worry or fear, or devoid of moral values, is often described as "a body without a soul".) In other words, Solomon's early trial consisted in his inheriting no more than a kingly position, and it rested upon him to endow that position with spiritual essence and meaning.