Why was there no noise of metal when the temple was being built?

The temple was built without the use of Iron, it is said, how was it possible. You may ask! I too was very puzzled until I read this passage…

Q. What were the real secrets of the Master Workmen?

A. Not the signs, words and tokens as mistakenly recorded, but the wonderful properties of that noble insect, the S __ A, which cut and shaped all the holy vessels in King Solomon's Temple. . . In truth they illegally conspired to extort from H A B the secrets of the S __A, the wonderful creature that could cut stones...

NOTE: The blanks in S __ A, would be filled with letters to make SHERMA, which is probably a misspelling or corruption of SHAMIR. Such

was not an uncommon error of the early days.

Now I had to search for the meaning of the word Shamir – I got conflicting answers, it was an insect one said, another said it was a stone, another said it was a chemical, I chanced upon a small paragraph

Exodus 20:25:

"and if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it."

Then I chanced upon Calmet’s Great Dictionary of the Holy Bible, two names appeared to show me the path Shimie and Shamir this led me to

the following explanation…

After Solomon had assembled the men and materials, as directed by his Father David, for the construction of the Temple, he consulted with his chief advisor Shimei about this taboo on the use of iron. Shimei

told the wise king that he should use the mysterious material SHAMIR.

When Solomon asked what this mysterious substance was, he was told that it had been created on the evening before the first Sabbath by the Almighty. Shimei also told him that it was this mysterious

substance that had been used by Moses to write the Ten Commandments on the tablets of stone, and by which the names of the twelve tribes had

been engraven on the stones of the breastplate of the High Priest of Israel.

"Where can this mysterious SHAMIR be found?" asked the wise king.

"O King, no man knows where it can be found," was the reply of the king's advisor. "But it is written that the sea eagle knows."

King Solomon, in company with his chief general Benaiah, went in search of the sea eagle. Knowing in his supreme wisdom the way to talk

to the animals and the birds, even the insects, King Solomon; was aware of the fierce devotion; of the fierce mother sea eagle had for its young. As the mother eagle left the nest to seek food for the flock, the King ordered Benaiah to cover the nest with a crystal globe, which he did.

When the mother eagle returned to feed her young, she was unable to penetrate the crystal dome with her beak or her strong talons. Being

unable to reach her young the mother eagle flew high and into the west beyond the vision of the wise king and his chief general. As they

waited and after some considerable time, the mother eagle returned with a small object in her beak. She landed near the crystal dome and

touched it with the object in her beak. It immediately split in two

and she was able to get to her young.

The astonished King Solomon spoke to the sea eagle asking, "What is that material and where did you get it?" The eagle replied that it was found in the Mountains of the Sleepers. (Mount Pion Turkey???) "Take me there," commanded the

King. The sea eagle guided the two men to the mountains and showed them the source of the SHAMIR.

The two collected a sufficient quantity of the mysterious material and brought it to the site of the Temple in Jerusalem. It was given over to the workmen, and so the Temple was erected in silence and harmony without the sound of axe, hammer or any tool of iron.

Now. When the Worshipful Master tells the Candidate in the Charity Charge (Charge in the North East) after a few questions asked by the

deacon…Secondly to evince to the brethren you had neither m… nor m…substance about you…for if you had the ceremony of your initiation

thus far must have been repeated! Hope you understand the legend of the Shamir thus far!

Well what was the Shamir? We can only guess but these are 6 important

points to note

1. The SHAMIR was the seventh of the ten miracles that were created in the evening of twilight on the first Friday of creation. There are many legends which say that it was capable of splitting or marking the hardest of all substances.

2. Its size was about that of a grain of wheat or barley, although its form varied in the stories told about it. Some said that it was a worm or an insect that crawled across a substance, no matter how obdurate, that the substance would be split cleanly. Iron was broken by its very presence; stone split when it was placed on the stone like the pages

of a book.

3. The SHAMIR was stored in balls of wool or layers of bran and then placed in a lead box. On reading one account, a person could get the idea that this was a form of energy, and with the need for a lead

container one might think of atomic energy

4. It is said that Moses was enabled with the use of the SHAMIR to engrave the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on the stones of the breastplate. One account states that he wrote the names in ink on the

stones and then held the SHAMIR over them and the names were etched in

the stones. It reminds us of a photo etching process with a form of pure energy.

5. The SHAMIR; was the vital ingredient in the erection of the Temple without iron tools and excessive noise. The Temple of God was to be a place of harmony among all men and thus could not be a place of tumult and confusion.

6. Mysteriously the SHAMIR disappeared after the Temple of Solomon was completed. Some accounts say after the completion of the Temple: while

other accounts claim that it disappeared after the destruction. This much can be said that the legends concerning it all date to events

before the destruction of King Solomon's temple. The last use of it was at the building.

Hope I have tickled the detective in you let us see if you can discover more!