The Creation of Man and the Royal We

The story of creation is very cryptic and difficult to grasp causing many commentators to offer allegorical explanations for many of the events that took place. On the sixth day, the final day of creation, Hashem created man in His image. While the way in which God actually created man may be difficult for us to comprehend, the way in which he commissioned his creation poses a potential theological quandary. The Torah states (Breishit 1:26),

ויאמר אלוקים נעשה אדם בצלמנו כדמותנו
And God said, 'Let us make Man in Our image...

The question arises: To whom was God referring to when he said "us" and "our?" The implication seems to be that there was more than one deity. The Targum Yonatan answers the question by saying that Hashem was speaking to the angels when he said "we", but not that there was, God forbid, more than one god.
The explanation offered by the Targum Yonatan does not explain why Hashem needed to consult with the angels when deciding to create man. In fact, the fear that one could come to the wrong conclusion, that there are multiple deities, is expressed in a fascinating story in Masechet Megillah (9a):

.

מעשה בתלמי המלך שכינס שבעים ושנים זקנים, והכניסן בשבעים ושנים בתים, ולא גילה להם על מה כינסן. ונכנס אצל כל אחד ואחד ואמר להם: כתבו לי תורת משה רבכם. נתן הקדוש ברוך הוא בלב כל אחד ואחד עצה, והסכימו כולן לדעת אחת. וכתבו לו... אעשה אדם בצלם ובדמות
There was an incident involving King Ptolemy who gathered 72 elders and placed them into 72 different rooms and did not inform them as to why he had gathered them. He went to each and every one of them and said to them: 'Write me the Torah of Moshe your teacher.' Hashem divinely inspired each of them and they all came to the same opinion. And they wrote, 'I will make a man in an image and likeness.'

When King Ptolemy had the rabbis translate the Torah into Greek the rabbis realized that it would be best for all concerned if they made some changes to the Torah. Even though they were unable to consult with one another a miracle happened and they all made the same changes. One of the changes that was made was the changing of the phrase, "Let us make man in Our image after Our likeness" to "I will make make in an image and likeness." Ptolemy would have come to the wrong conclusion that there was actually more than one god, so the rabbis changed it to avoid the issue.
Rabbi Baruch HaLevi Epstein (1860-1941) explains why Hashem used the plural form instead of the singular. In his Torah Temimah he writes,

ומה שבאמת כתיב בלשון רבים הוא משום דמדרך הכבוד והגדולה כך הוא, וכמו במלך בו"ד שמדבר בלשון רבים, אלא שתלמי לא היה מקבל זה מפני שאולי היה רוצה למצוא עילה בתורת משה. ונראה דאע"פ שהיו יכולים להביא לו ראיה דרשות אחת בבריאה מדכתיב בפסוק הסמוך ויברא אלהים את האדם
And in truth it is written in the plural because this is the way of honor and greatness, just as a king of flesh and blood speaks in the plural. Ptolemy, though, would not have accepted this because it is possible that he wanted to find a pretext [for disputing the validity of] Moshe's Torah. And it appears that even though they (the rabbis who translated the Torah) could have brought proof that there is only one deity from creation that it states in the next verse, 'And God created man...'

Rabbi Epstein explains that the Torah used the plural not because there is more than one god nor because he was consulting with the angels about the creation of man, but rather because that is the way kings - even the King of the Universe - speak. Indeed, according to the Torah Temimah, Hashem was the first king to speak in the royal we.