Comparing the Lesser Key of Solomon with the Testament of Solomon

A scribe in the fourth century copied a story about a king who sealed a demon in a brass vessel and threw it into a Babylonian lake. A thousand years later, another scribe compiled a manual for summoning seventy-two spirits by name, ranked by their hours of rule. The two texts share a name and a king. They do not share a method, a worldview, or a single coherent tradition. The Lesser Key of Solomon (the Lemegeton) is a European grimoire of spirit evocation compiled around the 1640s. The Testament of Solomon is a Greek pseudepigraphical text from the third or fourth century CE that tells a narrative of the king binding demons to build his Temple. One is a manual. The other is a story. Confusing them muddles both. Le Grand Grimoire keeps both on the same shelf but we read them differently. This comparison shows where they split, what they share, and why the two survive as distinct works. ---

How the Two Texts Define Their Subject Differently

The Testament of Solomon opens with a problem: a demon named Ornias steals wages from a boy who works on the Temple. Solomon prays. The archangel Michael gives him a ring engraved with a seal (the Pentalpha, or star-shaped signet). Solomon throws the ring at the demon, binds it, and forces it to name its origin, its celestial adversary, and the angel that can thwart it. The Lemegeton opens with a method: how to draw a circle, when to begin (the hour of Mercury on a Wednesday in a waxing moon), what to wear (a linen vestment, clean but not white), and how to constrain the spirit without letting anger slip. No angels intervene. No boy loses wages. The operator works alone with parchment, brass vessels, and a well-practiced voice. One is a king using divine authority. The other is a magician using technical procedure. ---

Dating and Provenance: What the Manuscripts Actually Say

The Testament of Solomon survives in Greek manuscripts, the oldest being a fifteenth-century copy of a text scholars date to the third or fourth century CE. Internal evidence suggests a Jewish author writing in Greek, possibly in Palestine or Asia Minor. The text mentions the Colossus of Rhodes (still standing) and the Temple of Jerusalem (still built). That pins the original composition before 70 CE. The surviving copies show Christian interpolations: Christ appears as the power that breaks the demons. The original core was likely Jewish, with Christian editors adding layers later. The Lesser Key of Solomon has a cleaner provenance. The earliest known manuscript is Harley MS 6483 in the British Library, copied around 1640. The text claims to be the work of King Solomon but no scholar takes that literally. It is a compilation of earlier grimoires: the Ars Goetia (the first book, listing seventy-two spirits), the Ars Theurgia Goetia (spirits of the air), the Ars Paulina (planetary spirits derived from the Heptameron of Pietro d’Abano), the Ars Almadel (celestial spirits from a wax tablet), and the Ars Notoria (prayers for memory and knowledge). Each section had a separate life before being bound together. ---

Structure: Narrative versus Manual

The Testament is a single story. Solomon binds demon after demon: Ornias, Beelzeboul, Asmodeus, a headless spirit, a lion-shaped demon, a fire-demon named Epremoth. Each demon confesses its weakness and the angel who defeats it. The narrative builds toward a moral collapse: Solomon falls in love with a Shunammite woman, sacrifices to Moloch, and loses his power. The text ends as a warning. The Lemegeton is a reference work. Each spirit gets a description: rank (king, duke, president, earl, marquis, knight), number of legions it commands, appearance (a lion with wings, a man carrying a bow, a crow-faced thing), and the specific sigil to draw. The method is procedural: cast the circle, recite the conjuration, constrain the spirit in the triangle, extract the oath, dismiss it. No king loses his throne. No love story interrupts the instructions. ---

The Spirits: Who Appears and Who Does Not

The Testament names roughly a dozen demons. Some are familiar: Beelzeboul (prince of demons), Asmodeus (fire-born, plotting against Tobias), Ornias (lustful, shape-shifting). Others are obscure: the demon of winter who looks like a lion, the demon of the Red Sea who rules in the south. No list of seventy-two. No hierarchical arrangement. The Lemegeton gives seventy-two spirits in the Ars Goetia alone. Bael (a king who appears with three heads), Agares (a duke who rides a crocodile), Vassago (a prince who can reveal past and future), Paimon (a king who answers only if you show respect). Each spirit has a fixed rank, a seal, and a specific planetary hour. The later books add more spirits: the aerial spirits of the Ars Theurgia, the planetary spirits of the Ars Paulina, the celestial spirits of the Almadel. The overlap is minimal. Asmodeus appears in both. Beelzeboul in both. But the Testament has no Bael, no Paimon, no Amaymon. The Lemegeton has no Ornias, no Epremoth, no demon of the pillar. ---

The Role of Angels: Divine Mediation versus Sorcerous Address

In the Testament, angels do the work. Michael gives the ring. The demons confess which angel thwarts them: the archangel Ouriel against the demon of the south, the archangel Raphael against Asmodeus. Solomon does not command the spirits by his own authority. He borrows it. In the Lemegeton, the operator calls directly on God. The opening conjurations invoke the Tetragrammaton, Adonai, Elohim. But the operator does not wait for an archangel to bring a ring. He draws the circle himself. He recites the conjuration alone. He threatens the spirit with binding in brass unless it obeys. The angels are invoked in the prayers but they do not appear. The operator stands in the circle, the spirit in the triangle, and the power flows from the words, not from a saint or a messenger. ---

Material Culture: The Ring versus the Triangle

The Testament revolves around one object: the seal ring. It is given, not made. It is thrown, not drawn. It binds by physical contact. The rest is narrative: the demon shrinks, the brass vessel seals, the lake swallows. The Lemegeton requires a full toolkit. A brass vessel or a crystal stone (for the spirit to appear within). A consecrated circle nine feet across, inscribed with divine names around the border and a hexagram at the center. A triangle of Solomon outside the circle, placed toward the direction of the spirit. A wand of hazel or other ritually prepared wood. The operator must know the planetary hours, the lunar phase, the direction of the wind. One mistake collapses the operation. ---

Christianization: When and How It Happened

The Testament was Christianized by its scribes. The original Jewish text received references to Christ as the breaker of demonic power. The demons themselves acknowledge Christ: “I am the one who brought down kings and raised up others, but if you call on the name of the Son of God I am powerless.” The Christian layer is grafted on, visible in the seams. The Lemegeton is Christian from the ground up. The conjurations use the names of Christ, the angels, the saints. The spirits rank as fallen angels from the Christian hierarchy (kings, dukes, presidents mirror earthly courts but also the angelic orders). The operator’s purity matters because the Eucharist and Confession are prerequisites. The text never pretends to be older than Christianity. It assumes a Christian operator and a Christian universe. ---

How the Two Texts Were Used Historically

The Testament was read, not performed. It survives in monastic libraries, copied alongside hagiographies and homilies. No medieval manuscript shows marginal notes about summoning. No archaeologist has found a brass vessel with a demon’s name. The text functioned as entertainment, moral instruction, and folkloric curiosity. The Lemegeton was used. Marginal annotations in the Harley manuscript show practical edits: someone crossed out one spirit’s rank and wrote another. Sigils were traced and retraced. The Ars Notoria section shows wear from being held open during recitation. Practitioners from the seventeenth century forward treated it as a live document. Occultists like Francis Barrett (1801), S.L. MacGregor Mathers (late 1800s), and Aleister Crowley (1904) published editions, translated the conjurations, and used them. ---

Common Misconceptions about the Two Works

They are not the same book. The Testament predates the Lemegeton by roughly 1,300 years. One is Greek pseudepigrapha. The other is a European grimoire. Solomon did not write either. Both claim authorship. Neither is credible. The Testament is anonymous Jewish fiction. The Lemegeton is a compilation by unknown European scribes using earlier sources. The spirits do not match. The Goetia seventy-two are not the same spirits as the Testament’s dozen. Only three or four names cross over. The method is incompatible. The Testament uses a ring. The Lemegeton uses a circle and triangle. You cannot substitute one for the other. The Testament is not a grimoire. It is a narrative with magical elements. The Lemegeton is a magical manual with minimal narrative. ---

FAQ

Is the Testament of Solomon the same as the Lesser Key of Solomon? No. They are separate works from different centuries, languages, and traditions. The Testament is a narrative. The Lesser Key is a manual. Which book should I read first? Read the Testament for context and the Lesser Key for method. They inform each other but do not depend on each other. Does the Lesser Key of Solomon include demons from the Testament? A few: Beelzebub and Asmodeus appear in both. Most spirits in the Lesser Key have no parallel in the Testament. Are both texts considered magical? Yes, but differently. The Testament is Christianized Jewish fiction with magical motifs. The Lesser Key is a practical grimoire for ritual evocation. ---

Closing

The Testament of Solomon and the Lesser Key of Solomon are two branches from the same root: the legend of a king who spoke with spirits. But one branch grew into a story about a man who lost his power by loving a foreign woman. The other grew into a toolkit for any operator willing to stand inside a circle at the correct hour. Both survive because both work, but for different readers. For the narrative of the Testament, see our demonology and goetia hub. For the sigils of the seventy-two spirits, read our guide to the Ars Goetia. And for the terms that appear in both texts, consult the glossary of magical tools.