How did the baby die in the Book of Solomon?

Answer 1

It didn't. Solomon used the tactic to determine the true mother of the baby and she was given her baby back.

(1 Kings 3:16-27) 16 At that time two women, prostitutes, got to come in to the king and stand before him. 17 Then the one woman said: "Excuse me, my lord, I and this woman are dwelling in one house, so that I gave birth close by her in the house. 18 And it came about on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also proceeded to give birth. And we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, no one but the two of us in the house. 19 Later the son of this woman died at night, because she lay upon him. 20 So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your slave girl herself was asleep and laid him in her own bosom, and her dead son she laid in my bosom. 21 When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, why, there he was dead. So I examined him closely in the morning, and, look! he did not prove to be my son that I had borne." 22 But the other woman said: "No, but my son is the living one and your son is the dead one!" All the while this woman was saying: "No, but your son is the dead one and my son is the living one." And they kept on speaking before the king. 23 Finally the king said: "This one is saying, 'This is my son, the living one, and your son is the dead one!' and that one is saying, 'No, but your son is the dead one and my son is the living one!'" 24 And the king went on to say: "YOU men, get me a sword." So they brought the sword before the king. 25 And the king proceeded to say: "YOU men, sever the living child in two and give the one half to the one woman and the other half to the other." 26 At once the woman whose son was the living one said to the king (for her inward emotions were excited toward her son, so that she said): "Excuse me, my lord! YOU men, give her the living child. Do not by any means put him to death." All the while this other woman was saying: "Neither mine nor yours will he become. YOU men, do the severing!" 27 At that the king answered and said: "YOU men, give her the living child, and YOU must by no means put him to death. She is his mother."