The owner's manual.

¹On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not.

²I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but found him not.

³The watchmen found me as they went about in the city. “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”

⁴Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.

⁵I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.

⁶What is that coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the fragrant powders of a merchant?

⁷Behold, it is the litter of Solomon! Around it are sixty mighty men, some of the mighty men of Israel,

⁸all of them wearing swords and expert in war, each with his sword at his thigh, against terror by night.

⁹King Solomon made himself a carriage from the wood of Lebanon.

¹⁰He made its posts of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple; its interior was inlaid with love by the daughters of Jerusalem.

¹¹Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look upon King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart.