Commentaria in III Regum
It is proved first, because Solomon was sleeping and was in a dream; all these things, therefore, were represented to him not in reality but through a dream.
Second, because in verse 15 Scripture says expressly: “And Solomon awaked, and perceived that it was a dream.”
But the contrary opinion is no less probable, nay brings stronger reasons, namely that this dream was not natural but divine, and sent properly by God (though nature also and the natural thoughts of Solomon by day serving God), and therefore was not so much a dream as a prophetic vision or ecstasy, such as was the sleep of Adam, when God formed Eve from his rib, which the Septuagint call ecstasy: for in it Adam, God revealing it, knew the incarnation of Christ and the formation of the Church from his Side, as St. Augustine, St. Thomas, Rupert and others everywhere teach. Such also was the dream of Abraham, Genesis 15:12, in which God revealed to Abraham, and promised a great posterity and the possession of Chanaan. Such also was the dream of Joseph about his future principality in Egypt, Genesis 37:5, and of Jacob, Genesis 28:12, where God in sleep promised him the same, nay more.
It is proved first, because Scripture expressly signifies this when it says: “And the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, saying.” This was therefore a true apparition and speaking of God, which Solomon received, as the prophets received the oracles of God through visions both by night and by day; therefore it was not a common and natural dream.
Second, because the long narrative that follows relates a true history, not a dreamed one. For God really speaking says to Solomon: “Ask what thou wilt that I should give thee,” and Solomon answers at length, and asks wisdom, and brings many and weighty reasons for this petition, and that so wisely and prudently that awake he could not have spoken more prudently. From this narrative, and from Solomon’s long speech to God, it is clear that he had a most perfect discourse and judgment, with consideration of the divine majesty and of His benefits, and of his own weakness and need in that royal state in which he was placed; and that from this perfect discourse and judgment he proposed that petition to God, and therefore it pleased Him.
Third, because in verse 11 God bestows on Solomon the reward of this wise and holy petition, and grants his wishes, saying: “Because thou hast asked this thing, etc., behold I have done for thee according to thy words”; and not only this, but adds far more, namely riches, glory, length of life and magnificence above all kings: all which Scripture narrates fully and carefully as really done, and not in a dream, so that they can hardly be twisted to another sense, and they surpass and transcend every dream. And this Scripture meant when it said, verse 15: “And Solomon awaked, and perceived that it was a dream,” namely not a human but a divine one, as I shall show at that verse.
Fourth, because God really in this sleep imparted wisdom to Solomon, as Scripture signifies, for we cannot find or assign any other time at which Solomon received it; therefore likewise Solomon really prayed in sleep and asked wisdom; for by prayer he obtained it: “behold I have done for thee according to thy words, and have given thee a wise heart.” So think Lyranus, Dionysius, Salmeron, volume 3, treatise 22; Antonius Fernandius, book On Visions, Prelude 7, number 8 and following; Hugh, the Gloss, Gonsalvus Cervantes on Wisdom chapter 7, verse 7, and at length and solidly Suarez, volume 2 On Religion, book 2 On Prayer, chapter 19, where he teaches first that God in sleep can raise the intellect and imagination to the perfect use of reason, and to full judgment of truth, whether speculative or practical, and that He did this in the sleep of Adam, Genesis 2. For God can so strengthen and clarify the imagination, and drive away all the vapors which hinder it in sleep, that it can truly not only apprehend things but also judge rightly of them, the external senses meanwhile being kept in the same disposition which they have in natural sleep. To this comes St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, octonary 18, at the end, where he asserts that Solomon then “prayed” and “merited.” Nay in octonary 2, verse 2, he adds: “Seeking God with his whole heart, he asked wisdom, and because he asked for himself not royal wealth but the divine gift of grace, he deserved to receive the discipline of wisdom.” Tertullian also, book 4 Against Marcion, chapter 15, plainly thinks Solomon then had free choice, saying: “When the option was granted him, he preferred to ask for what he knew pleased God, wisdom; he deserved to obtain riches also.” Eucherius speaks in the same way, question 2 on the third book of Kings, saying that Solomon besought God, etc.
Finally, in 2 Paralipomenon 1:7, where this same history is narrated, no mention is made of a dream: “Behold,” it says, “in that very night God appeared to him.” This dream was therefore a true apparition and vision of God, such as the other Prophets had.
To this opinion at length St. Bonaventure, Alensis and Richard in the places already cited incline, when they add that Solomon by a divine privilege could use reason in sleep and merit, and St. Thomas also, who in I-II, question 113, article 3, to 2, gives a second answer, saying: “Or it may be said that that sleep was not natural, but a sleep of prophecy, according to what is said in Numbers chapter 12: If there be among you a prophet of the Lord, I will speak to him in a vision, or by a dream. In which case a man has the use of free will.” You will say: Sleep hinders the use of reason and free will, because in sleep the senses and imagination, without which reason cannot work freely, are lulled and as it were bound. I answer that naturally, and in natural sleep, this is true, but not in supernatural and divine sleep, such as this of Solomon’s. For in it God can infuse into the Prophets species without conversion to phantasms, which do not hinder sleep, just as sleep did not hinder the vision in Christ, who says of Himself in Canticles 5:2: “I sleep and my heart watcheth.” So St. Bernardine and others think that the Blessed Virgin freely loved God while sleeping, and so merited, and Suarez judges this probable, part 3, question 37, article 4, disputation 18, section 2. Or rather, God so strengthened and clarified the imagination of Adam, Solomon and the Prophets in sleep, that they could freely understand, choose and act, as I said a little before from Suarez. For this is more connatural to man.
Furthermore God sent this whole dream to Solomon through an Angel, who represented God, and in particular God the Son, to be incarnate from the stock of Solomon, as St. Chrysostom, homily 46 on the Acts, St. Leo, St. Ambrose, Tertullian, Origen, Theophylact, Eusebius, Clement, Nicephorus and others teach, whom Pineda cites, book 3 On the Things of Solomon, chapter 8, number 4.
You will ask, why then was this vision shown to Solomon by night, not by day? I answer, the literal cause is that by day Solomon had been occupied in the immolation of a thousand victims. Whence he was then indisposed for this vision; by these victims, however, he disposed himself and made himself worthy to receive this vision: wherefore as a reward of his piety he received this vision from God the following night, when at rest.
The symbolic cause was that God, though in Himself the highest and infinite light, yet to Him the created mind, especially the human, is dimmed; as the eye is dimmed and dulled in gazing at the sun. Wherefore God appeared to the saints, especially of the Old Testament, such as Abraham, Moses and Jacob, by night or in darkness. Whence St. Dionysius, in the book On Mystical Theology, teaches that he who wishes to contemplate God must enter with Moses into the darkness by which God is covered and veiled.
Mystically St. Gregory, book 2 of the Morals, chapter 2, notes that night is a sign of ill omen and an unhappy end: “Judas, not about to return to pardon, is said to have gone out at night to the perfidy of the betrayal, as John says, chapter 13: And it was night. And to the wicked rich man it is said, Luke 12: This night do they require thy soul of thee; for the soul which is led to darkness is recorded as being required not in the day but in the night. Hence it is that Solomon, who received wisdom without being able to persevere in it, is described as having received it in sleep and by night.” So Gregory, from whom Rupert, Eucherius and others have described the same.
Rupert adds and blames Solomon for having asked wisdom, not holiness: “Yet in this he is reprehensible, that an option being given him by the Lord’s bounty, so prone to give, he did not ask for that good which is true and supreme.”
But this good is included in the wisdom which Solomon asked, as St. Ambrose teaches on Psalm 118, on the words: “With my whole heart have I sought after thee.” Whence in Wisdom 9, Solomon asking wisdom of God says: “That I may know what is acceptable before thee at all times,” of which presently more.