And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east,.... The Arabians, and Persians, famous for wisdom, and who lay to the east of the land of Judea; whose wisdom lay in the knowledge of the stars, in divination by birds, and soothsaying :and all the wisdom of Egypt; which it was eminent for in the times of Moses, and in which he was learned and well-skilled, Ac 7:22; and hence in later times the philosophers of the Gentiles travelled to get knowledge, as Pherecydes, Pythagoras, Anaxagoras, Plato, and others to Egypt, said to be the mother of arts and sciences .
Midrash Kohelet. fol. 76. 3. Macrob. in Som. Scip. c. 19. 21. & Saturnal l. 1. c.