Hiram also had agents on Cyprus, where his interests probably lay in the copper mines about Amathus and Limassol.
[1] A letter of Qurdi-Aššur-lāmur to Tiglath-Pileser, quotes a report from the Assyrian functionary Nabū-šēzib at Tyre, wherein Nabū-šēzib claims to have prevented Hiram from seizing the sacred tree (ēqu) from Sidon: "Hiram cut down the [sacred] tree of the temple of his gods, which is at the entrance to Sidon, saying: ‘I shall move it to Tyre’.
"[1] According to the hypothesis that much of the material in the Hebrew Bible was written at a late date by a so-called "Deuteronomist", references to Hiram I's relations with Solomon, king of Israel, are often re-dated by scholars to the reign of Hiram II and the Judahite king Ahaz.
[1] Likewise, the fleets assembled by Solomon and Hiram in 1 Kings 10 may better fit the reign of Ahaz.
The Israelite king could have procured access to the sea at the Yarkon River from his overlord, Tiglath-Pileser, after the latter's conquest of Philistia.