The Eagle , the Ring and the Mountains of Darkness

Every day Shlomo would rise early in the morning,
he would turn his face towards the east and would see what he would see.
Afterwards he would turn to the south and would see what he would see.
Then he would turn towards the north and stand there,
he lowered his eyes and straightened his head.
At that time, there was a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud that would come,
On the pillar of cloud came an eagle.
The eagle was great and strong.
This is the way he would come;
the right wing on the pillar of fire
and the its body and left wing on the pillar of cloud
The eagle would bring two leaves in its mouth
So they came, the pillar of cloud the pillar of fire and the eagle upon them
and bowed before King Shlomo
the eagle humbled himself before him and gave him the leaves
King Shlomo took the leaves and smelled them
he would sense in the smell a sign
and he would say,”this one is from Falling One,
and this one is from Uncovered Eyes.”
When there were two leaves
he would know that both Falling One and Uncovered eyes wish to reveal to him secret words.
What would he do?
He sealed his throne with a seal that was engraved in it the holy name,
and he took a ring that was engraved in it the holy name.
He then mounted the eagle and flew away.
The eagle climbed to the clouds,
and every placed where they would pass the light would become darkened.
The wise people who lived in the place where it became dark would know,
and would say, “ King Shlomo just passed by,”
and they wouldn’t know to where he was going.
The foolish people of that place would say,
“It was clouds that were passing by that made the world dark.”
The eagle rose higher and flew four hundred parsangs until he reached the Mountains of Darkness, there is Tadmor in the desert in the mountains,
and he would land there, raise his head and would see a Mountain of Darkness
There he would learn all that he needed
and he knew that in there he would enter
He rode the eagle like before and flew and rose into the mountains
until the place of the olive tree.
He called out with strength, “God your hand is raised, let them not see...(Isaiah 26, 11.)
He entered there until came close to that place,
he placed the ring with t he seal before him and came close
there he learned all that he wanted
of those foreign wisdoms which he wanted to know.
Once they told all that he wanted to know he rode on the eagle and returned to his place.
When he sat down on his throne, his mind became settled,
and he would speak from his mind precious words of wisdom.
Zohar II 112b