The Ship and the Tree

Several times I have mentioned the magical ship. The vessel, we learned, was built during the time of King Solomon of Israel.

The posts themselves have come from the oldest tree in the world. The author described that each post had a different colour: snow white, blood red and emerald green. These were the natural colours of the wood.

At the dawn of time, when Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, they became aware of their nakedness and were ashamed. They covered themselves with twigs and leaves that they broke from the Tree of Life, to hide their nakedness. When they were driven out of the Garden of Eden, Eve took the twig with her. When they found a place to settle, Eve planted the twig in the earth. Eventually, the humble twig grew into a large, beautiful tree.

It was under this tree that their second child, Abel was born. Abel was not only the favourite child of Adam and Eve, but also of God. Out of jealousy, the eldest son named Cain killed his brother under the same tree which Abel was born under. Part of the tree was awash with Abel's blood. It was here that God punished Cain.

By the time of Solomon, the tree was still alive and green. Solomon had a reputation in the Bible to be a great and wise king. Solomon was the son of King David and Bathsheba, David's favourite wife. Solomon, like his father before him, had many wives. One of his wives was a very intelligent and resourceful woman.

The king learned that one of his descendants would become the greatest knight in the world. Solomon wanted to give this knight something that belonged to him. It was his wife who thought of the idea of building a ship that would last over a thousand years.

Once the ship was completed, she placed the large, magnificent bed at amidships. At the head of the bed, she placed her husband's crown.

Solomon's wife had carpenters cut some wood from the Tree of Life. The reluctant carpenters were forced to cut enough wood to make three posts of different colours. On either side of the bed were a red and a white post. A wooden beam hanging over the bed was bolted to these two posts. The green hued post was on top of the beam's centre.

The night everything was completed, Solomon had a vision of a being coming down from heaven who wrote inscriptions on the side of the ship and the sword. The inscriptions were warnings and prophecies.

On the side of the ship, the inscription warned that no one, without complete faith in God, could board the ship.