Solomon was a wise man, a man not wise in the wisdom of this lower world so much as in the wisdom of the higher world, genuine wisdom. If he really builded the temple which people mean when they talk about the "Temple of Solomon," one can only ask: what on earth became of that particular temple structure? Antiquity outside of the Jewish books knows nothing whatsoever about it.
Why is it that the learned men among the Romans and Greeks and the Egyptians and other peoples who passed along one of the main highways of Asia Minor, never mentioned this wonderful temple? No traces of it exist today except a legend that the present temple of Jerusalem is builded on its emplacement. We are also told that this temple was builded by certain priest-workers, structural workers, masons and carpenters and others, and yet that there was heard no sound of tool. Isn't it evident from the very description, that this temple of Solomon was not a physical structure at all, but a mystical temple in the Heavens, if you wish?
How is the universe builded by the cosmic workers, the cosmic spirits, the cosmic laborers and the cosmic architects working night and day? How is it builded? Without sound of tools, builded by cosmic wisdom, held in place and continuance by cosmic wisdom and cosmic love, and it is ineffably beautiful as a cosmic structure.
How is the body of man builded, the temple, the holy throne, in its highest parts the holy of holies of the inner divinity? Builded in the silence without sound of tool, neither sound of hammer nor chisel nor mallet.
Among the initiates it was a common sign that when a certain great Being founded a 'city,' he founded an esoteric school, and when he builded a 'temple' in that city, he opened a sanctuary for initiation — the temple in the city, the sanctuary, the holy of holies, within the school.
Solomon in Hebrew means peace, quiet. Do you realize that the secret Wisdom of the Hebrew called the Qabbalah, also describes the building of the universe as a temple, not so much in the words but in the same thought? From the indescribable Primordial Point comes forth Adam Qadmon, the Primordial Hierarch of the Universe to come; and from Adam Qadmon stream forth nine and ten Sephiroth, the Angelic Hierarchies of the subordinate Architects and Builders, the contractors, the masons, the carpenters, of the universe, building the temple in the bosom of Ein Soph, the Boundless — a universe.
What was this mystical temple of Solomon but the Angelic Hierarchies of the universe constructing without sound of tools the noblest work the gods have done. The holiest meaning, the most beautiful of the significances, of this temple of Solomon is of a new revealing to mankind of the ancient God-Wisdom. So we call it the Qabbalah of the Jews that Solomon then first gave. How much more beautiful, how much more worthy of worship: that which makes man from man a demi-god, because unveiling, revealing, bringing forth, the god within him. Is there any religion higher than that? It is the objective, the aim, the purpose, of all the greatest spiritual intellects of antiquity: to bring out the god within man.
And you remember even what another Jew, the great Avatara Jesus, pointed out as the noblest way by which to pray, the holiest, the most acceptable to the divinities? In substance it was this: when thou desirest to unveil thy heart in gratitude, enter into the holy of holies, thy secret chamber within thyself, wherein is peace and silence and worship. Don't do as the Pharisees do in churches, in synagogs, in temples, worshiping in public with many words. But enter into the holy of holies, within thine own heart wherein the divinity abides.
There is the temple. Those who wish may worship openly, in churches, in synagogs, temples and cathedrals. The true followers of Jesus, the true followers of the great initiates of all times, may attend such places; but when their worship is highest and dearest to them, they will go within, into the inner chamber, worship in secret and peace, in silence with the quiet of all the senses, for there in the silence is the still, small Voice.
Thus, the temple of Solomon is but one version of the universal allegory known all over the world and among all peoples.
(From Sunrise magazine, November 1952; copyright © 1952 Theosophical University Press)