[2] In addition, it was erroneously called "Shocher Tov",[3] a name which properly refers to Midrash Tehillim.
Buber thinks that the midrash was compiled as early as the 8th century, since quotations from it are found (though without references to the source) at the end of the Halakot Gedolot and in the Seder R. Amram 12b.
Although the midrash contains comparatively few legends, myths, or parables, it has many interesting teachings with no parallel in other midrashim.
For instance, the four riddles which the Queen of Sheba propounded to King Solomon[6] are found in no other extant midrash, but they correspond to the first four of the nineteen riddles mentioned in the manuscript Midrash ha-Ḥefez.
[7] Aside from the manuscripts of Midrash Mishlei mentioned by S. Buber,[8] there is one in the JTS library.
If this reading is the original one, it would confirm the assumption that the editor was a Babylonian, since the name "Metatron" occurs only a few times in the sources from Israel, the name "Michael" being found instead.