My eyes rose to my father's smiling visage and under my breath I asked, "Where did you get this?"
"Can you tell me what it is? Wait I know you can. I can tell my playing along with the questioning stuff is working on your nerves, but humor me I'm wearing a wire for the benefit of my superiors so they can listen in."
"You're wearing a listening device?" I stammered out with even as he gestured to a dot on his shirt lapel.
"It even takes video. What? You don't think I'd go walking around with a historical artifact worth millions of dollars on my own do you? Now for the benefit of those listening, what is this?"
Glancing around, as if to see those listening in, I cleared my throat and said, "It's the symbol of one of the kingdoms that was sworn over to King Solomon through one of his wives. The kingdom in question appears nowhere else in recorded history and the name of it is synonymous with no earth culture we are aware of and yet she was regarded highly by King Solomon and it's said that like Solomon's mistress, the Queen of Sheba, she was reputed to be of a darker exotic appearance. Some claim India as a possible place of origin, but there is no mention of such a kingdom ever occurring there and they have a rather detailed history dating back to that time and before. As strange, as the occurrence of the exotic princess of that symbol is, there is also the unknown knowledge of just where in fact many of the princesses of nations King Solomon married came from as in the ancient world surrounding Israel at that time there was simply not such a volume of nations or city states as to support the hundreds of wives and thousands of concubines that King Solomon amassed within his personal harem."
My father nodded encouragingly before adding, "Anything else? Perhaps more about the red dirt."
I stared at the man who was my father, who I felt was betraying me in some unseen way. I didn't want to say anymore, but my spirit was immediately prompted to do so and grudgingly I gave into the prodding of the Holy Spirit by divulging all my thoughts on the matter, "It is a belief of mine that Solomon engaged into alliances that stretched past our known world. Indeed, as the builder of the First Temple, he was the one that procured the red dirt which to all knowledge hasn't been seen on the surface of the Earth since the great flood of Noah's day. He got the red dirt by which to perform the Temple sacrifices from somewhere and I think one of these marriage alliances could have been what it took to seal the deal for the procurement of such a rare commodity."