David's son, Israel's third king — builder of the first temple, proverbially the wisest and richest man of his age: the gold shields, the ivory throne, the fleet bringing 'gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks' (1 Kings 10). He enters this site not at his zenith but losing a beauty contest to a wildflower: 'not even Solomon, in all his glory, was clothed like one of these' (Matthew 6:29). Matthew's opening genealogy runs the royal line through him (1:6-7), and Jesus will invoke him once more: 'something greater than Solomon is here' (12:42).