Finding "The Lost Symbol" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Head of the Smithsonian Institution

Langdon regards Peter Solomon not only as a friend and mentor, but also as a father figure despite Peter being only twelve years Robert's senior. Peter Solomon is incredibly wealthy, and, despite this, Langdon always manages to sense his humility.

Upon hearing that Peter Solomon was looking for him, Langdon dropped everything and flew to Washington DC to fill in for a missing keynote speaker at Peter's lecture. When Langdon reached the National Statuary Hall, he realized that he had been set up.

Answer: Noetic science

Noetic is a word that comes from the Greek and means "to think". Katherine Solomon studies a unique branch of science which tries to quantify things that to the common person seem intangible, like 'a thought' or 'a soul'. In the novel, "The Lost Symbol", Katherine had devised an experiment that was able to measure the mass of a soul, as improbable as it seemed to even have a mass.

She was on a verge of a breakthrough when the series of events that would shatter her family's existence took place.

Answer: Angel

Mal'akh came across the name "Moloch" in his studies and readings. He became enamoured with the idea of a fallen angel walking the earth while reading John Milton's "Paradise Lost". He saw himself as a god amongst men, and decided to transform himself to achieve that goal in body, not just in spirit.

Many ancient texts of mysticism, science, poetry, and philosophy gave birth to the idea that Mal'akh's body was a vessel that he could transform into something holy. He drew up a 'masterpiece' which was tattooed onto his own body, leaving just one part untouched for the final transformation.

Answer: Giant squid

Pod 3 is also known as the 'Wet Pod' because it has a giant Plexiglas tank filled with ethanol that houses a giant squid. There are over 20,000 different animals stored there in preservative chemicals, among them the Architeuthis, the squid. The feel is that you are in an aquarium (hence the name 'Wet Pod'), and the smell of chemicals is repeatedly described.

Trish is asked by Katherine to escort Mal'akh to her laboratory in Pod 5 when she still doesn't know who he is. Trish detours with her visitor into the ominously described zoologist's dream room, and she loses her life at the hands of the powerful visitor. Oddly, Mal'akh reflects that this is not the first woman that he's killed.

Answer: Gold

Throughout the novel repeated mention is made of gold being a divine material. Alchemists had been trying for ages to turn lead into gold. Through these attempted transformations, alchemists actually managed to discover many other things in topics such as chemistry and physics and many other sciences.

The symbol for gold is the same symbol as the one for Ra, the Egyptian Sun God. It is known as a 'circumpunct' and looks like a circle with a dot in the center of it. The same circumpunct was also used as an important symbol in many other cultures. For example, it is the symbol of spirit among the Chippewa Indians, it is the Eye of God in Christian and Wixáritari traditions (see an American $1 bill and observe the top of the pyramid). It is the symbol of the Sun in astrology and is even used in mathematics to denote a vector pointing out of the page.

Answer: CIA

Inoue Sato is the Director of the Office of Security of the CIA - the United States Central Intelligence Agency. She is a highly intelligent, tiny and unattractive woman who suffered from throat cancer at some point which left her with a raspy voice. Despite all this, she manages to intimidate all those around her and demands knowledge pertaining to the situation that she feels ought to be hers.

Despite her harsh exterior, Sato is actually working to stop Mal'akh from releasing a video that he made that would be harmful for both the Freemasons and several prominent members of it. She realizes that the Masons are not the enemy and in the end, Langdon comes to realize that Sato is not the enemy either.

Answer: Boils the pyramid

By boiling the pyramid, Robert Langdon is able to discover further instructions that help him decipher the pyramid's secrets. "All is revealed at the 33rd degree" means to Langdon that he must bring the pyramid to a boil. 33 degrees on the Newton scale is boiling and Newton was a Mason - thus the secret further unraveled.

As the pyramid heated up, mystical ink on its surface began to glow. When the lights were turned off, Langdon and Katherine were able to get another clue to the mystery of the secret of Washington DC. Another thing that happened to the pyramid is that the wax on its base melted off revealing even more clues.

Answer: Drowning

Mal'akh knocks Robert Langdon unconscious. When Langdon awakes, he's in a coffin-like encasement with a Plexiglas window through which he can see Mal'akh. Mal'akh begins to flood the coffin with a liquid, and tells Langdon that if he does not reveal the secret of the pyramid, he will not let him out. As the water rises, Langdon has to think fast in order to try and save his life. Nevertheless, after revealing all that he can, Mal'akh does not release Langdon from his coffin and lets Langdon experience the effects of drowning.

As Langdon breathes in the liquid he assumes is water, he is surprised to find out that he is still alive. The liquid is an oxygen-rich liquid that humans can breathe (much like in the 1989 movie "The Abyss"). When Langdon is dragged out of the tank, it feels to him as though he is reborn.

Answer: Sacrifice of Isaac

Mal'akh had purchased the knife believed to have been lost - the knife used by Abraham to nearly sacrifice his son Isaac. Mal'akh believes that by reenacting the scene upon the altar in the Freemason Temple he can achieve godliness. What's more, the hand that wields the knife has to be Peter Solomon, none other than Mal'akh's true biological father.

Peter is faced with a hard choice, strike down Mal'akh and save his sister Katherine and prevent a damaging video from being uploaded, or to hold his hand and abide by his own morals. Peter abstains, and Mal'akh is killed from above. Literally. The CIA helicopter smashes the skylight and shards of glass pierce Mal'akh's body and kill him.

Answer: Colin Galloway - Dean of Washington Cathedral

Mal'akh is, in fact, Peter Solomon's own son Zachary. When overhearing his father converse with a guard at a Turkish prison where he was being held, Zachary decided to sever all ties with his past. He concocted a scheme with the guard and had another inmate murdered and made to seem as though it was he who was murdered. Then, he fled and murdered the Turkish guard.

Upon reaching the Greek isles, Zachary donned a new persona, one of rich multimillionaire Andros Dareios. When trying to lure Robert Langdon to Washington, Zachary poses as Peter's assistant. Finally, when pulling wool over Katherine's eyes, psychologist Dr. Abaddon is the identity chosen by Zachary. In the end, he confesses to being Peter's son, as the story reaches its climax.