"What cities are these," he said, "which thou hast given me, my brother?
And he called them the land of Cabul"-- "rubbish" or "offscourings"-- to mark his disappointment.[1491] But this passing grievance was not allowed in any way to overshadow, or interfere with, the friendly alliance and "entente cordiale" (to use a modern phrase) which existed between the two nations.

Solomon, according to one authority,[1492] paid a visit to Tyre, and gratified his host by worshipping in a Sidonian temple.

According to another,[1493] Hiram gave him in marriage, as a secondary wife, one of his own daughters--a marriage perhaps alluded to by the writer of Kings when he tells us that "King Solomon loved many strange women together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, _Zidonians_, and Hittites."[1494] The closest commercial relations were established between the two countries, and the hope of them was probably one of the strongest reasons which attracted both parties to the alliance.

The Tyrians, on their part, possessed abundant ships; their sailors had full "knowledge of the sea,"[1495] and the trade of the Mediterranean was almost wholly in their hands.

Solomon, on his side, being master of the port of Ezion-Geber on the Red Sea, had access to the lucrative traffic with Eastern Africa, Arabia, and perhaps India, which had hitherto been confined to the Egyptians and the Arabs.