Five hundred begins it, five hundred ends it, Five in the middle is seen; First of all figures, the first of all letters, Take up their stations between. Join all together, and then you will bring Before you the name of an eminent king.
Think you have it? The answer is below.
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Answer: DAVID (D = 500, A and I between, V = 5 in the middle, D = 500)
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📖 The answer, explained
The trick here is that it's Roman numerals hiding in plain sight, dressed up as a description of a person rather than a number. Five hundred is D, and the riddle tells you flat out that D opens and closes the word — so your frame is D _ _ _ D. Five in the middle is V, so now you've got D _ V _ D. Then comes the sly part: "first of all figures" is 1, which in Roman numerals is I, and "first of all letters" is A. Slot I and A around that central V, and you get D-A-V-I-D. The whole riddle is really just a Roman-numeral cipher wearing a costume, and once you realize it's spelling rather than counting, the eminent king reveals himself immediately: David.
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