One evening, Solomon was shown fine horses and became fascinated, stroking and admiring them until the time for maghrib salah passed and the sun set. Him missing the salah was a mistake, and might not have been mandatory for those believers at that time. Nevertheless, it distracted him from the remembrance of Allah.

And We blessed David with Solomon—what an excellent servant ˹he was˺! Indeed, he ˹constantly˺ turned ˹to Allah˺.38:30

˹Remember˺ when the well-trained, swift horses were paraded before him in the evening.38:31

He then proclaimed, “I am truly in love with ˹these˺ fine things out of remembrance for my Lord,” until they went out of sight.38:32

˹He ordered,˺ “Bring them back to me!” Then he began to rub down their legs and necks. 38:33

The last verse above has different interpretations. One of the most popular views (held by At-Tabari and others) is that he was patting them by way of affection.

˹Allah said,˺ “This is Our gift, so give or withhold ˹as you wish˺, never to be called to account.”38:39

And ˹We subjected to him˺ every builder and diver of the jinn,38:37

So We subjected to him the wind, blowing gently at his command to wherever he pleased.38:36

and others bound together in chains.38:38

He prayed, “My Lord! Forgive me, and grant me an authority that will never be matched by anyone after me. You are indeed the Giver ˹of all bounties˺.”38:35

We then move onto the next section of verses within Surah Sad which mention another story. In this story, we hear about how Allah placed a body on his throne - this was a jinn which Allah willed and decreed should sit on his throne and have control over Solomon's dominion for the duration of this test. Then Solomon turned to Allah in repentance. Allah answered his prayer and forgave him, and restored his dominion to him, and added to it something that was never granted to anyone after him - his control over his jinn - so that they built whatever he wanted and dived for him in the sea, bringing pearls and jewels; whoever among them disobeyed him, they chained him up.

And indeed, We tested Solomon, placing a ˹deformed˺ body on his throne, then he turned ˹to Allah in repentance˺.38:34

And he will indeed have ˹a status of˺ closeness to Us and an honourable destination!38:40

Allah subjugated the wind and made it of service to him, so that it would blow by his command and carry him and everything he had with him, and would cover huge distances in a short time, so that it was possible to travel a distance of two months journey in a single day. We hear about further blessing given to Solomon in the below verses.

And to Solomon ˹We subjected˺ the wind: its morning stride was a month’s journey and so was its evening stride. And We caused a stream of molten copper to flow for him, and ˹We subjected˺ some of the jinn to work under him by his Lord’s Will. And whoever of them deviated from Our command, We made them taste the torment of the blaze.34:12

They made for him whatever he desired of sanctuaries, statues, basins as large as reservoirs, and cooking pots fixed ˹into the ground˺. ˹We ordered:˺ “Work gratefully, O  family of David!” ˹Only˺ a few of My servants are ˹truly˺ grateful.34:13