If you believe the Bible, and not the results of traditional methods of archaeological research, then King Solomon was fabulously rich.
In the Third Book of Kingdoms, descriptions of various precious metals and stones, as well as other luxuries and exotic things, clearly indicate that Solomon exported them from distant lands. The Egyptian bas-relief depicts countless treasures looted from the temple and palace of Solomon by the successor of the Queen of Sheba, Pharaoh Thutmose III. A significant part of these treasures, according to the lists given in the Third Book of Kingdoms and the annals, were of copper and bronze.
Large-scale copper mining was carried out in the Negev desert, and the recently found Egyptian tablet of Thutmose III confirms that the development of this metal was actively carried out there. Nevertheless, the location of the mythical mines is still shrouded in a veil of secrets and omissions. The Bible offers seductive but extremely subtle clues in naming two locations, Ophir and Tarshish. Gold came from Ophir, and Tarshish was associated with the ships leaving for him. The same Third Book of Kingdoms says: "… and they went to Ophir, and took 420 talents from there, and brought them to King Solomon." The ship that brought gold from Ophir is again mentioned in the legend about the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Jerusalem. He allegedly brought "from Ophir a great variety of mahogany and precious stones." Thus, the Bible does not give a clue where Ophir was, it only states thatthat he existed. From the Third Book of Kingdoms, it follows that Solomon sent expeditions for gold and jewelry in cooperation with the Phoenicians, skilful sailors of antiquity, under the leadership of Hiram I, king of Tire. The ships left the port of Ezion-Gaver on the Red Sea. It also indicates that Solomon was at sea "… a Tarshish ship with the ship Hiramov; in three years a Tarshish ship came, bringing gold and silver, and ivory, and monkeys, and peacocks."… the Tarshish ship with the ship Hiramov; in three years a Tarshish ship came once, bringing gold and silver, and ivory, and monkeys and peacocks. "… the Tarshish ship with the ship Hiramov; in three years a Tarshish ship came once, bringing gold and silver, and ivory, and monkeys and peacocks."
However, where was Tarshish located? The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel says that the Phoenicians traded there in silver, iron, wood and lead. About a hundred years after Solomon, when the wealth of the kingdom of Israel had diminished significantly, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, attempted to reach Ophir from Ezion Taver, but a storm crashed the ships while still in port.
Biblical mention of Tarshish is also contained in the Book of the prophet Jonah, who tried to flee there. He paid for his carriage at the port of Joppa, on the Mediterranean, where the ship was bound for Tarshish. So, the following options are possible:
1. There were several places called Tarshish (it can also be translated as "smelter"), which were all associated with the points from where Solomon exported minerals.
2. The Hebrew historian Flavius Josephus in the 1st century AD. in the translation of the Old Testament, he identifies the word "Tarshish" with the name of the famous port of Roman times - Tarsis. His version of Solomon's voyages is as follows: "… since the king had many ships in the Tarsis Sea, he ordered to bring all kinds of goods from the most distant countries." This may not contradict the first version, if we assume that Solomon had Tarsis (Tarsis) ships for sailing to Tarsiss (to various smelters).
3. Since Solomon was definitely associated with the Phoenicians who were engaged in maritime trade, the third version, based on various evidence of their history, defines Tarshish as Tarsis - an ancient kingdom located near Cadiz in the territory of modern Spain, vividly described by the ancient Greeks as a mine of silver. It is known that the Phoenicians traded with Spain and then colonized it, so Tartessus could well have been one of the sources of minerals delivered to Solomon.
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However, none of these hypotheses can be completely acceptable. Tarsis, undoubtedly, could serve as one of the dispatch points for ores mined on the Black Sea coast. He could also supply his own silver. But what about monkeys, ivory, peacocks and blacks? Discarding the monkeys of Gibraltar, it can be argued that neither Spain nor Tarsis could have been possible sources of all this commodity. And why did Solomon's ships take as long as three years to sail to one of these places and back? The meaning of the word "farsis" is not clear, and if this is the name of a place, then, probably, it was far away, and, possibly, it was about several places, and not about one.
“During excavations in Mahdad-Dhabad in Saudi Arabia, a huge gold mine was discovered that operated during the time of Solomon. Perhaps it was Ophir, where Solomon sailed with King Hiram (according to the Bible, the kings themselves did not go there, but sent their subjects).
As for exotic goods, Tartess could have been a starting point for longer and more risky sea voyages around Africa and, presumably, America. The testimony of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus that the Phoenicians, leaving the Red Sea in about 600 BC. in a southern direction, were able to sail around Africa and back across the Mediterranean Sea along the northern shores of Egypt to the Nile delta, did not cause the slightest mistrust among ancient historians. The path of the Phoenicians lay through the Strait of Gibraltar, in the immediate vicinity of Tartessa. Similar travels could have been undertaken in the time of Solomon. The ships took on board monkeys, ivory, peacocks and blacks, along with silver from Tartess himself, which gave the name to all such voyages in general and the type of ships that participated in them.
However, there is another hypothesis, which can be considered either instead of the previous one, or as an addition to it. There is more evidence today to support the possibility of travel to the New World during the same period than against it. The travelers' route could also run in the opposite direction: from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic through the Pillars of Hercules. Many hypotheses have been put forward regarding the location of the mythical mines of King Solomon. A new look at the navigational abilities of ancient sailors makes it more likely that they were in Central or South America.