Sulaiman — Name Meaning in Islam

Origin: Hebrew Shlomo, from the root meaning peace and wholeness — the same root Arabic carries as س-ل-م. Arabic took it as Sulaymān, and the sense of salām is heard in it.

From the related root س-ل-م: salām (peace), islām (submission, and the peace of it), muslim, salīm (sound, whole), Salmān, Salīm, Salmā.

Who carried it: the Prophet Sulayman, son of Dawud, given a kingdom the Qur'an says was granted to no one after him (Sad 38:35). He is described as understanding the speech of birds (an-Naml 27:16), commanding the wind and the jinn, and receiving the hoopoe's report about the queen of Sheba — the passage in Surah an-Naml where the ant warns her colony, which gives the sūra its name.

The line the tradition returns to. For all the kingdom, the Qur'an's Sulayman is shown asking for a rule that "befits none after me" immediately after asking forgiveness, and elsewhere responding to a gift of wealth by saying that what Allah gave him is better than what he was sent. The wealth is never the point of the story.

Spellings: Sulaiman, Sulayman, Suleiman, Süleyman (Turkish), Sulaiman (Indonesian, Urdu), Slimane (Maghrebi), سليمان.

Pronunciation: su-lay-MAAN.

Feminine counterpart: Salma, Salima, Sulaima.