1 Kings 3:26
Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.
The woman to whom the living child belonged yearned inwardly over her son and pleaded that he be given alive to the other woman rather than slain, and her willingness to give up her own living son rather than see him killed proved the true mother's love. In his early reign Solomon discerned that self-sacrificing love and restored the helpless living babe to its unfortunate mother, displaying his wisdom and sympathetic kindness. That act revealed his self-mastery, moral efficiency, fine sensibilities, and living conscience while he remained loyal to God.
This compassionate judgment stands in stark contrast to his later ruin, when he consented to idolatrous rites in which living children were offered as sacrifices. That fall followed his separation from God through communication with idolaters, when he cast off his allegiance, lost mastery of himself, and fell so low as to allow the erection of such an idol and to countenance the licentious rites of Chemosh and Ashtoreth.