Jerusalem is the destination where Melisso and Giosefo seek the celebrated wisdom of Solomon. In the story, the city is less a described landscape than the setting for a brief encounter: two travelers arrive with different troubles, receive compact answers from the king, and leave thinking they have been dismissed without help. The significance of Solomon’s counsel emerges only after they have journeyed away from Jerusalem.

Destination of the Two Travelers

Solomon’s reputation for miraculous wisdom and his readiness to dispense it had drawn people from many parts of the world. Among those who set out to consult him was Melisso, a wealthy gentleman from Lajazzo, who was traveling toward Jerusalem. After leaving Antioch, he rode for a time with Giosefo, another traveler bound for the same destination.

Their shared journey brings together two distinct requests for advice. Giosefo hopes to learn how to deal with a wife he considers impossible to correct. Melisso, despite spending his wealth on hospitality and keeping open house for his fellow townsmen, wants to know how to win their affection. Jerusalem is thus the endpoint of a journey prompted not by a common need but by their separate disappointments in domestic and social life.

The Audience with Solomon

Once they arrive, an introduction from one of Solomon’s barons secures the travelers admission to the king. Melisso briefly explains his problem and receives the single-word answer Love. He is then sent out, and Giosefo presents his own complaint. Solomon’s response to him is Get thee to Goosebridge, after which Giosefo too is dismissed.

The different answers establish a contrast between the travelers’ needs: Melisso is directed toward love as the answer to his failure to win goodwill, while Giosefo is given a destination rather than an explanation. At the moment in Jerusalem, neither man can see how the advice applies. They leave the audience perplexed and suppose that Solomon has made sport of them.

Meaning Revealed Beyond the City

The point of Solomon’s words to Giosefo becomes legible only after the travelers have been on their way home for several days. At a river crossing, they must wait while a line of pack animals passes over a fine bridge. One mule balks; its driver first tries moderate blows and then beats it heavily until it finally crosses. Melisso and Giosefo advise gentler handling, but the muleteer insists that he knows his own animal.

When Giosefo asks a poor man at the bridgehead what the place is called, he learns that it is Goosebridge. The name recalls Solomon’s instruction, and Giosefo begins to understand its practical force. Jerusalem therefore frames the counsel but does not contain its full explanation: the travelers carry the king’s words out of the city, and an ordinary scene encountered on their return supplies the key. The delayed recognition turns the audience with Solomon from an apparently fruitless visit into the beginning of a lesson.