▪ Jeffery1938: »All these references [in the Q] are to the Biblical Solomon, though the information about him in the Qurʔān is mostly derived from late legend. The name was early recognized as a foreign borrowing into Ar and is given as such by al-Jawālīqī,
Muʕarrab, 85, though some were inclined to take it as genuine Ar and a diminutive of
salmān from a root SLM (cf.
LA, xv, 192). Lagarde,
Übersicht, 86, thought the philologers were right in taking it as a diminutive from
salmān, quoting as parallel
zuʕayfirān from
zaʕfarān, and Lidzbarski,
Johannesbuch, 74, n. 1, agrees. The truth, however, seems to be that it is the Syr
Šlīmōn as Nöldeke has argued.
1
al-Jawālīqī, op. cit., said it was Hbr, but Grk
Salṓmōn, Syr
Šlīmōn, Eth [Gz]
Salōmōn, beside Hbr
Šᵊlōmōh, are conclusive proof of Christian origin. – The name was well-known in the pre-Islamic period, both as the name of Israel’s king, and as a personal name,
2
so it would have been quite familiar to Muḥammad’s contemporaries.«