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Legends of the Queen of Sheba are common throughout Arabia, Persia, Ethiopia and Israel. In Arabian tradition, Balkis ruled with the heart of a woman but the head and hands of a man. Islamic stories portray Solomon as marrying the Queen. In contrast to the Bible,(3) they portray her abandoning her gods and converting to the God of the Israelites.
Arabian folklore and the Qu'ran present fanciful stories of the Queen of Sheba. Many of these tales involve magic carpets, talking birds, and teleportation - the miraculous transfer of Balkis' throne in Sheba to Solomon's palace. One notable tale involves the hoopoe bird, who tells Solomon about Balkis and delivers to her a demand from him - unless she visits him, he will annihilate her people. In one story, her foot which is shaped like an ass's foot is transformed into a human foot when she steps on Solomon's glass floor; in another story, Solomon invents a depilatory in order to remove goathair from her legs.
Several Jewish legends which developed in post-Biblical times also present dubious accounts of the Queen and Solomon. Although many of her challenges to Solomon are believable, others given in the Targum Sheni, the Midrash Mishle and the Midrash Hachefez are similar to Islamic tales, and likewise unconvincing. Here again we encounter the talking hoopoe bird; here, Solomon threatens: "the beasts of the field are my kings, the birds my riders, the demons, spirits and shades of the night, my legions. The demons will throttle you in your beds at night, while the beasts slay you in the field and the birds will consume your flesh."(4). Here also, she is described sending Solomon six thousand boys and girls all born the same hour, the same day, the same month and same year, all of equal size and dressed in identical purple garments.(5)
More realistic portraits of the Queen of Sheba appear in the Bible and the Kebra Negast. According to Ethiopian legend, she was born in 1020 B.C. in Ophir, and educated in Ethiopia. Her mother was Queen Ismenie; her father, chief minister to Za Sebado, succeeded him as King. One story describes that as a child Sheba (called Makeda) was to be sacrificed to a serpent god, but was rescued by the stranger 'Angaboo. Later, her pet jackal bit her badly on one foot and leg, leaving lasting scars and deformity. When her father died in 1005 B.C., Sheba became Queen at the age of fifteen. Contradictory legends refer to her as ruling for forty years, and reigning as a virgin queen for six years. In most accounts, she never married.
Sheba was known to be beautiful (despite her ankle and leg), intelligent, understanding, resourceful, and adventurous. A gracious queen, she had a melodious voice and was an eloquent speaker. Excelling in public relations and international diplomacy, she was a also competent ruler. The historian Josephus said of her, "she was inquisitive into philosophy and on that and on other accounts also was to be admired."(6)
Power and riches could not satisfy Sheba's soul, for she possessed an ardent hunger for truth and wisdom. Before her visit to Solomon, she says to her people:
"I desire wisdom and my heart seeketh to find understanding. I am smitten with the love of wisdom.... for wisdom is far better than treasure of gold and silver... It is sweeter than honey, and it maketh one to rejoice more than wine, and it illumineth more than the sun.... It is a source of joy for the heart, and a bright and shining light for the eyes, and a giver of speed to the feet, and a shield for the breast, and a helmet for the head... It makes the ears to hear and hearts to understand."
"...And as for a kingdom, it cannot stand without wisdom, and riches cannot be preserved without wisdom.... He who heapeth up gold and silver doeth so to no profit without wisdom, but he who heapeth up wisdom - no man can filch it from his heart... I will follow the footprints of wisdom and she shall protect me forever. I will seek asylum with her, and she shall be unto me power and strength."
"Let us seek her, and we shall find her; let us love her, and she will not withdraw herself from us, let us pursue her, and we shall overtake her; let us ask, and we shall receive; and let us turn our hearts to her so that we may never forget her."(7)
Sheba Prepares for Solomon
How did Sheba learn of the wisdom of King Solomon? The leader of her trade caravans, Tamrin, owned 73 ships and 787 camels, mules and asses, with which he journeyed as far as India. Having also traded with Israel, he brought gold, ebony and sapphires to Solomon, for use by his 700 carpenters and 800 masons who were building the great temple of Jerusalem. Tamrin told Sheba about the temple, and:
"how Solomon administered just judgement, and how he spake with authority, and how he decided rightly in all matters which he enquired into, and how he returned soft and gracious answers, and how there was nothing false about him.... Each morning, Tamrin related to the Queen about all the wisdom of Solomon, how he administered judgement ... and how he made feasts, and how he taught wisdom, and how he directed his servants and all his affairs... and how no man defrauded another... for in his wisdom he knew those who had done wrong, and he chastised them, and made them afraid, and they did not repeat their evil deeds, but they lived in a state of peace."
"And the Queen was struck dumb with wonder at the things that she heard... and she thought in her heart that she would go to him; and she wept by reason of the greatness of her pleasure in those things that Tamrin had told her.... When she pondered upon the long journey she thought that it was too far and too difficult to undertake. But she became very wishful and most desirous to go that she might hear his wisdom, and see his face, and embrace him, and petition his royalty."(
Whereas the Ethiopians emphasize Sheba's infatuation and adoration of the unknown Solomon - perhaps influenced by unfulfilled and sublimated sexual desire - Josephus describes her inquisitive, skeptical and challenging attitude:
"When this queen heard of the virtue and prudence of Solomon, she had a great mind to see him...she being desirous to be satisfied by her own experience, and not by a bare hearing (for reports thus heard are likely enough to comply with a false opinion); she resolved to come to him, in order to have a trial of his wisdom, while she proposed questions of very great difficulty and entreated that he would solve their hidden meaning." (9)
Sheba's desire to see Solomon was strong enough for her to begin the 1400 mile journey, across the desert sands of Arabia, along the coast of the Red Sea, up into Moab, and over the Jordan River to Jerusalem. Such a journey required at least six months time each way, since camels could rarely travel more than 20 miles per day.
Arabian camels were tall and hardy, able to store water and fat for three weeks while living only on desert roughage. Wearing saddles of oak padded with colorful fabric, and hung with gold chains and crescents to win the favor of the gods, camels in a caravan were strung together by ropes made of goat hairs. Baby camels born along the way were carried on the back of the camel ahead to assure its mother of its wellbeing.
Sheba's caravan of 797 camels, mules and asses was laden with provisions and gifts for Solomon. Since a camel's saddle could carry 300-600 pounds, the wealth she brought was vast - gold, precious stones, furniture and spices. Throughout the day, she rode on an extravagant gold palanquin, like a four-poster bed, richly cushioned, with a roof shielding her from the sun and draperies she could close for privacy. Her handsome white camel was laden with gold and precious stones. Most likely, she was also accompanied by an armed guard to protect her from desert brigands, and by her devoted servants.
As Sheba prepared for her journey, she yearned deeply for the wisdom which she could share with Solomon. Although she already had a passion for knowledge, her virginal status and her potential association with a young and handsome king most likely fueled her youthful fervor. Yet the response of her servants reveals that she was not merely a lovestruck adolescent. Sheba's own devotion to wisdom likewise inspired her people. According to the Kebra Negast, she told them:
"The honouring of wisdom is the honouring of the wise man, and the loving of wisdom is the loving of the wise man. Love the wise man and withdraw not thyself from him... hearken to the utterance of his mouth, so that thou mayest become like him... The whole story of him that hath been told me is to me as the desire of my heart, and like water to the thirsty man."
Her nobles, her slaves, her handmaidens and her counsellors all answered and said to her,
"O our Lady, as for wisdom, it is not lacking in thee, and it is because of thy wisdom that thou loved wisdom. And as for us, if thou goest we will go with thee, and if thou sittest down we will sit down with thee; our death shall be with thy death, and our life with thy life." (10)
The Queen of Sheba || Sheba: The Empire || ViewZoneVisits Sheba's Temple || ViewZone
Who was Solomon || Solomon and Sheba || Sheba and Her Son || Viewzone's Translations
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