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1)

(a) The servants of the Resh Galusa insinuated that Rav Sheishes might have stolen a silver goblet that had gone 'missing' - because they saw him wrapping up his portion of meat, and they wanted an excuse to discover it and accuse him of coming to make trouble.

(b) When they found it and did just that he replied - that he had declined to eat the meat because it came from a leprous animal.

(c) When Rav Sheishes told them to examine the animal (despite their insistance that they had not Shechted a leprous animal that day), they discovered - a leprous mark on its skin (either a pale mark on a dark animal, or a dark mark on a pale one).

(d) The servants made one last effort to get rid of Rav Sheishes - by digging a deep pit which they covered with a mat (for him to fall into), en route to his bedroom.

(a) The significance of the Pasuk "Netei Lach al Yeminech O al Semolech" is - that this is the Pasuk that the children quoted him when, suspecting that they were up to their tricks again, he asked for their Pasuk (which usually serves as a form of prophecy).

(b) It seems that he intended to ask the children for their Pasuk anyway, as we just explained. Added to that, there was Rav Chisda's warning 'cough'.

(a) When Shlomoh ha'Melech said "Asisi Li ...

1. ... Sharim ve'Sharos" - he was referring to a variety of musical instruments on which players used to play for him.
2. ... ve'Ta'anugos B'nei Adam" - to pools and bath-houses.

(b) In Bavel, they translated "Shidah ve'Shidos" as male and female demons. In Eretz Yisrael, they explained "ve'Shidos" - as luxurious wagons in which women and princes would ride.

(c) Rebbi Yochanan did not know what 'Shidah' was (or he knew that it referred to the mother of the demons, but did not know what she looked like). According to Rebbi Yochanan's testimony - there were three hundred different kinds of demons in Shichin.

(a) Shlomoh gathered the demons - following the advice of the Chachamim's who, after telling him that he would require the Shamir worm to cut the stones of the Beis Hamikdash without tools, and that the demons might be able to help him locate it.

(b) The demons personally were unable to tell him what he wanted to know. The information he 'forced' out of them was - that Ahsmedai their king was likely to know more than they did, as well as showing him where he lived.

(c) Ashmedai used to protect himself from being poisoned or taken captive - by drinking water only from a pool in a cave which he kept locked and sealed. During the day he would study in the Yeshivah shel Ma'alah. Upon his return to earth each evening, he would first inspect the seal to his cave before entering. Then he would enter and drink from the pool.

(d) Benayahu ben Yehoyadah outwitted him by drilling a hole underneath the pool and draining the water. Then, after stopping up the hole with shearings of wool that Shlomoh had supplied him with, he drilled a hole in the rock above the pool, into which he poured wine from the flasks that the King had provided. Ashmedai, although at first suspicious of the potent taste of the 'water' in the pool, eventually drank the wine and became drunk, upon which, Benayahu entered the cave, placed the chain around his neck and attached the ring with Name of Hashem on it (which prevented Ahsmedai from struggling to free himself).

5)

(a) A widow implored Ashmedai to move away from her hut - after she saw how he had just knocked down a tree and a house, merely by touching them.

(b) The significance of the Pasuk "ve'Lashon Rakah Teshaber Garem" is - that the widow's soft words caused Ashmedai to comply, and, as he bent to try and avoid touching her hut, he broke one of his bones.

(c) Ashmedai ...

1. ... helped first a blind man and then a drunken man, to find his way - because in heaven, they announced that the first was a complete Tzadik, and that whoever helped him would merit reward in the World to Come, and the second one, was a complete Rasha, who had to receive all the reward for his good deeds in this world, in order to deprive him of reward in the World to Come.
2. ... cried when he saw the revelers at a wedding in progress - because he knew that the Chasan was destined to die within thirty days, and the poor widow would have to wait thirteen for her new-born brother-in-law to grow-up before he would be able to perform Yibum.
3. ... laughed when he heard a man ask a cobbler for shoes that would last for seven years - because it was absurd for a man who does not know whether he will survive seven days, to order shoes that will last for seven years.
4. ... laughed when he saw a sorcerer in action - because here was a man purportedly foretelling what would happen far and wide, and he did not even know that he was sitting on top of a vast treasure.

(a) Ashmedai had to wait - three days before he was brought before Shlomoh Hamelech.

(b) Shlomoh did not see him on the first day - because he had drunk too much wine.

(c) He was hinting, when ...

1. ... on the first day, he took one brick and placed it on top of another one - that they should give the king more wine.
2. ... on the second day, he removed the top brick and placed it on the floor - that, seeing as the king was unable to see him because he had had too much to eat, they should withhold food from him.
3. ... on the third day, when he finally stood before the king, he placed a cane four Amos long, in front of him - that, considering that ultimately, a person only ends up with four Amos of earth in this world, why was Shlomoh not satisfied with the fact that he had captured the entire world? Why did he see fit to capture him, too?

(a) The Shamir was placed under the jurisdiction of the angel in charge of the sea, who in turn placed it in the charge of the Tarnegol ha'Bar (the hoopoe), who swore that he would return it to him intact.

(b) The hoopoe took the Shamir to - mountainous, uninhabited country.

(c) The ...

1. ... hoopoe settled the Shamir there - by holding it above a rock, and leaving it in the split after it had split it (which also explains why the Shamir became known as 'Nagar Tura' - [bores holes in mountains]).
2. ... Shamir was able to survive in such country - by virtue of the fact that as soon as the split was made, the hoopoe brought seeds and planted them there, turning it into a habitable area (presumably ensuring at the same time, that the Shamir would not (could not) run away.

(a) Shlomoh's emissaries captured the Shamir worm - by placing a pane of glass over the hoopoe's nest, thereby preventing the hoopoe from gaining access to its young. Then, when it went to fetch the Shamir to split the glass, they frightened it away by making a noise. They had no problem with then taking it.

(b) The hoopoe commit suicide - because it had broken its oath to the angel of the sea.

(a) Shlomoh retained Ashmedai - until he had finished building the Beis Hamikdash?

(b) Describing Hashem's supremacy over all the super-beings, Bil'am said "ke'So'afos Re'eim Lo". When he said ...

1. ... "ke'So'afos" - he was referring to the angels.
2. ... "Re'eim (Lo)" - he was referring to the demons.

(c) Ashmedai tricked Shlomoh into removing the chain and handing him the ring - by responding to Shlomoh's question 'In which way were the demons superior?', by telling him that he would give him a demonstration once he did that (since they limited his powers).

(d) He then proceeded to keep his word, by first swallowing Shlomoh (some say the ring), and then, after placing one of his wings in the heaven and the other on earth, he spat him a distance of four hundred Parsah (sixteen hundred Mil [= kilometers]).

(a) After losing his kingdom to Ashmedai, who now took over his throne, Shlomoh quoted the Pasuk in Koheles "Mah Yisron la'Adam be'Chol Amalo ... ".
He quoted the Pasuk ...

1. ... "*ve'Zeh* Hayah Chelki mi'Kol Amali" - in connection with his stick (others say to the clothes that he was wearing or to his earthenware drinking-cup), which is all that he retained from all his vast wealth.
2. ... "Ani Koheles Hayisi Melech al Yisrael bi'Yerushalayim" - wherever he went, in an effort to convince the people that he was really Shlomoh Hamelech, and that the current incumbent of the Throne was an impostor.

(b) The Sanhedrin tended to believe him - because someone who is demented does not normally confine his madness to one area only (and Shlomoh appeared perfectly normal in all other areas of human relations).

(c) Benayahu could do nothing to ascertain who was sitting on the throne, because the king was currently not calling him. The Sanhedrin initially asked the queens to examine whether he was Shlomoh or Ashmedai - by examining his feet whenever he was intimate with them [and demons have chicken's feet]), but they were unable to do this, because Ashmedai always made sure to keep them well-covered.

(d) The queens were however, able to report - that the king was demanding to have relations with them even when they were Nidos, and that he had even accosted Bas-Sheva (Shlomoh's mother)!

(a) What caused Ashmedai to fly away and leave the throne for Shlomoh to retake - was the fact that the Sanhedrin returned him his chain and ring (see Agados Maharsha DH 'Amru lei li'Benayahu') See also b.

(b) The Pasuk "Hinei Mitaso shel Shlomoh, Shishim Giborim Saviv Lah ... " - demonstrates Shlomoh's fear of Ashmedai, in spite of the fact that Ashmedai, himself terrified of the chain and the ring, flew away as soon as Shlomoh entered the room.

(c) Rav and Shmuel argue whether Shlomoh was 'Melech ve'Hedyot' or 'Melech ve'Hedyot u'Melech' - over the upper worlds. He definitely returned to the throne to rule over this world.

(a) To cure a headache caused by blood, one needs 'Shurbina' (a kind of cedar-wood), willow, wet myrtle, olive-wood and poplar, cloves and a herb called Yavla. After boiling them, one places three hundred cupfuls of the cupfuls on one side of the head, and three hundred cupfulls on the other died.

(b) The alternative is to take a white rose that grows in single stalks - boils it, and places sixty cupfuls on one side of the head and sixty cupfuls on the other side.

(a) For someone with half a headache, the cure begins with Shechting a hoopoe - with a Dinar made of pure silver, holding it above the side of the head that hurts, so that the blood drips on to it.

(b) During the Shechitah - one must take great care that the blood does not drip into one's eyes, because it causes blindness.

(c) One subsequently hangs the Shechted hoopoe - at the entrance of his house, so that he knocks it when he enters and knocks it when he leaves.