Commentary for Gittin 136:12

מאי טעמא כי שמעתיה לההוא גברא דאמר ליה לאושכפא עביד לי מסאני לשב שנין אחיכת אמר ליה ההוא שבעה יומי לית ליה מסאני לשב שנין בעי

and placing one wing on the earth and one on the sky he hurled him four hundred parasangs. In reference to that incident Solomon said, What profit is there to a man in all his labour wherein he laboureth under the sun.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Eccl. I, 3. [No satisfactory explanation has yet been given of the name of Ashmedai. Ginzberg (JE. II s.v. Asmodeus) gives it an Aramaic derivation. Kaminka JQR. (NS) XIII. p. 224 connects it with Smerdis, the magician, a hero in a Persian legend preserved by Herodotus, which has many points of similarity with the Ashmedai story.] ');">¹⁰</span>

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