He was an unsociable but gifted man. He grew up among virgin forests and his only teacher was Nature. He learned her innermost secrets only through the power of his amazing ability to observe and see into the essence of everything.
After they arrived at the construction site, he divided the workers into three groups. He placed the carpenters on the right, the metalworkers on the left, and the stonemasons in the middle. When the division into groups according to profession was completed, Hiram divided each group into three ranks, taking into account the knowledge of each. The least trained formed in each of the groups the rank of apprentices; those more skilled in the execution of the work entered the rank of journeymen; finally - those who led the others, received the title of master.
To avoid confusion between ranks, each of the members of the individual groups received his own password, which indicated his corresponding place in the hierarchy: apprentices recognized each other by the word Jakin, journeymen by the word Boaz, and masters by the four initials IEVE. Such was the just order according to which the wise Hiram established a hierarchy of degrees. Knowledge enabled apprentices and journeymen to gain higher rank. It was this wise measure, however, that led to Hiram's murder.
Three evil journeymen wanted to forcibly know the secret password of the masters, set by the Wise Architect Hiram and organized a dastardly plot. In the room located in the middle of the Temple, the masters gathered daily, leaving the door on the eastern side as a spare exit. The wise Hiram, having made sure that all his orders were faithfully carried out, was the last to go out.
Realizing this, the three conspirators made an ambush: each stood by one of the doors and waited for the Great Mason to come out. Hiram, finishing his work for the day, started for the south door, but there Yubelas was waiting for him and asked him for the master's password. With his natural meekness, Hiram told the journeyman that only knowledge made it possible to learn the secret formula. Then the journeyman swung the heavy 24-inch scale line at Hiram and tried to hit him on the head. Hiram managed to deflect the blow, but the instrument landed on his throat.
Then Hiram went to the west door, where all the workers exited. Jubelos was already waiting for him there, who, after the master's refusal to reveal his secret, hit him in the heart with the iron protractor. Stunned Hiram, barely dragging himself, tried to reach the eastern door, but here Jubelium, falling into a wild rage at the refusal of the master mason, killed him with a blow of a hammer on the forehead.
The three criminals, realizing that their plan had failed, were possessed by a single desire: to erase the traces of their crime. They hid the body in the garbage and the next day carried it to the forest where they buried it. Only a branch of Acacia pointed to where the grave of the greatest man was.
At the same time, Solomon, because he did not see his master and had a premonition that some misfortune had befallen him, sent three masters to look for him. They returned without finding anything. Then the king sent nine more craftsmen, who searched for him for seven days until, with the help of the Acacia branch, they discovered Hiram's grave. Thanks to them, the spirit of Hiram resurrected in every true freemason (freemason).
With the help of a stranger and a dog that sniffed their tracks, the hiding criminals were found. One of the fifteen masters, sent to punish the criminals, killed the most guilty of them, the murderer of Hiram, Abibala, by the spring in the cave where he was hiding. The other criminals committed suicide by throwing themselves from the high slope of the quarry. The heads of the three were presented to King Solomon.
GRAND LODGE OF