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Queen of Sheba

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The Queen of Sheba (Hebrew מלכת שבא , Arabic ملكة سبأ , Ge'ez: ንግሥተ ሳባ Nigista Saba), referred to in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the Qur'an, and Ethiopian history, was the ruler of the ancient kingdom of Sheba. The actual location of the historical kingdom may have included both Ethiopia and Yemen. Known to the Ethiopian people as Makeda (Ge'ez: ማክዳ mākidā, which, in Ethiopic languages, means "pillow"), she has been called a variety of names by different peoples in different times. In Islamic tradition she was Bilqis. To King Solomon of Israel she was the Queen of Sheba. The Roman historian Josephus calls her Nicaula. She supposedly lived in the 10th century BC.

In the Hebrew Bible, a tradition of the History of Nations is preserved in Beresh't 10 (Genesis 10). In Beresh't 10:26-29 is found the reference to Sheba listed along with Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab as the descendants of Joktan, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son of Arphaxad, the descendant of Shem, the son of Noah. Not to be confused with Sheba (Beresh't 10:7), the descendant of Raamah, the descendant of Cush, the descendant of Ham. The Semitic tribes, according to the biblical tradition, were found on the Arabian peninsula, with a dense concentration in Southern Arabia; Aram and Elam being the two exceptions, respectively located in the northern Fertile Crescent, and eastern Mesopotamia. Aharoni, Avi-Yonah, Rainey, and Safrai placed the Semitic Sheba in Southern Arabia in geographic proximity to the location of the tribes descended from their ancestor, Joktan. In addition to Sheba, Hazarmaveth and Ophir were identified. Semitic Havilah was located in Eastern Africa (modern day Ethiopia). Semitic Havilah (Beresh't 10:29) is to be distinguished from Cushite Havilah (Beresh't 10:7), the descendant of Cush, descendant of Ham; both locations for Havilah are thought to have been located in present day Ethiopia. The multiple references to Havilah may indicate historical Semitic migration from the southern Arabian peninsula to the African continent. Thus, the Queen of Sheba would rightly be placed as a descendant of the Semitic Sheba people group located in Southern Arabia.

Biblical Hebrew account

According to the Hebrew Bible, the unnamed queen of the land of Sheba heard of the great wisdom of King Solomon of Israel and journeyed there with gifts of spices, gold, precious stones and beautiful wood to test him with questions, as recorded in First Kings (largely copied in 2 Chronicles ).

The queen was awed by Solomon's great wisdom and wealth, and pronounced a blessing on Solomon's God. Solomon reciprocated with gifts and "everything she desired," whereupon the queen returned to her country. The queen was apparently quite rich herself, as she brought 4.5 tons of gold with her to give to Solomon (1 Kings ).

In the Biblical passages which refer explicitly to the Queen of Sheba there is no hint of love or sexual attraction between her and Solomon. The two are depicted merely as fellow monarchs engaged in the affairs of state.

The Song of Solomon (Song of Songs) contains some references which have been at various times interpreted as referring to love between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. However, the young woman of the Song of Songs continues to deny the romantic advances of her suitor, whom many commentators identify as King Solomon. In any case, other than the colour of her skin there is little to identify this speaker - who clearly regards "The Daughters of Jerusalem" as her peer group and is defensive about their teasing - with the rich and powerful foreign queen depicted in the Book of Kings.

Later Ethiopian tradition firmly asserts that King Solomon did seduce and impregnate his guest, and provides a detailed story of how he went about it (see later section) - a matter of considerable importance to Ethiopians, as their Emperors traced their lineage to that union.

Qur'anic account

The Qur'an never mentions the Queen of Sheba by name, though Arab sources name her Balqis. The story is similar to the one in the Bible. The Qur'anic narrative has Solomon getting reports of a kingdom ruled by a queen whose people worship the sun. He sends a letter inviting her to visit him and to discuss about his god Allah, the Lord of the Worlds (Alamin). She agrees and prepares riddles to test his wisdom and knowledge. Then one of the servants of Solomon (who had the knowledge of the "Book") proposes to bring him the throne of Sheba 'in the twinkling of an eye' (27:40). The queen arrives at his court, is shown her throne, and when she enters his crystal palace and starts the riddling. She is appalled by his wisdom and praises his god. She eventually accepts Abrahamic monotheism and the worship of God alone.

Modern Arab view

Some modern Arab academics have placed the Queen of Sheba as a ruler of a trading colony in Northwest Arabia, established by South Arabian kingdoms . Modern archeological finds do indeed confirm the fact that such colonies existed, with south Arabian script and artifacts, although nothing specific to Belqees has been uncovered.

Recent Archaeological Discoveries in Yemen

Recent archaeological discoveries in the Mahram Bilqis - pronounced Mah-ram Bill-kees - (or Temple of the Moon God) in Mareb, Yemen support the view that Queen Sheba ruled over southern Arabia with evidence suggesting the area to be the capital of the Kingdom of Sheba. A team of researchers funded by the American Foundation for the Study of Man (AFSM) and led by University of Calgary archaeology professor Dr. Bill Glanzman has been working to "unlock the secrets of a 3,000-year-old temple in Yemen." "We have an enormous job ahead of us," says Glanzman. "Our first task is to wrest the sanctuary from the desert sands, documenting our findings as we go. We're trying to determine how the temple was associated with the Queen of Sheba, how the sanctuary was used throughout history, and how it came to play such an important role in Arab folklore."

Ethiopian account

The imperial family of Ethiopia claims its origin directly from the offspring of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Ge`ez: ንግሥተ ሣብአ nigiśta Śab'a , who is named Makeda (Ge`ez: ማክዳ) in the Ethiopian account, (which, from the Ethiopic languages literally translates to English as "pillow").

The etymology of her name is uncertain, but there are two principal opinions about its source. One group, which includes the British scholar Edward Ullendorff, holds that it is a corruption of "Candace", the Ethiopian queen mentioned in the New Testament Acts; the other group connects the name with Macedonia, and relates this story to the Ethiopian legends about Alexander the Great.

The Italian scholar Carlo Conti Rossini, however, was unconvinced by either of these theories and believed the matter unresolved.

The ancient compilation of Ethiopian legends Kebra Negast ('the Glory of Kings'), is supposed to record the history of Makeda and her descendants. King Solomon is said in this account to have seduced the Queen, and sired a son by her, who would eventually become Menelik I, the first Emperor of Ethiopia.

The narrative given in the Kebra Negast - which has no parallel in the original Biblical story - is that King Solomon invited the Queen to a banquet, serving spicy food to induce her thirst, and inviting her to stay in his palace overnight. The Queen asked him to swear that he would not take her by force. He accepted upon the condition that she, in turn, would not take anything from his house by force. The Queen assured that she would not, slightly offended by this intimation that she, a rich and powerful monarch, would engage in stealing. However, as she woke up in the middle of the night, her mouth was all dry. Just as she grabbed a jar of water placed close to her bed, King Solomon appeared, warning her that she was breaking her oath, water being the most valuable of all material possessions. Thus, while quenching her thirst, she set the king free from his promise, and they spent the night together. This is how they begot Menelik I.

The tradition that the Biblical Queen of Sheba was a ruler of Ethiopia who visited King Solomon in Jerusalem in ancient Israel is supported by the 1st century AD Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who identified Solomon’s visitor as a queen of Egypt and Ethiopia.

While there are no traditions of matriarchal rule in Yemen during the early first millennium BC, the earliest inscriptions of the rulers of Dʿmt in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea mention queens of very high status, possibly equal to their kings.

For the Ethiopian Monarchy, the Solomonic/Sheba lineage was of considerable political and cultural importance. Ethiopia had been converted to Christianity by Egyptian Copts, and the Coptic Church strove for centuries to keep the Ethiopians in dependant and subservient condition, which the Ethiopian Emperors greatly resented.

The Solomonic descent made the Ethiopians senior by far to the Kopts, their involvement in Biblical affairs long predating Christianity itself. Indeed, since The New Testament starts with Jesus' genealogy back to Kings David and Solomon, the Ethiopian Emperors were in effect Jesus' own cousins (albeit distant ones).

Christian interpretations

The Queen of Sheba is mentioned as the "Queen of the South" in the Matthew 12:42 and Luke 11:31 in the New Testament, where Jesus indicates that she and the Ninevites will judge the generation of Jesus' contemporaries who rejected him.

Christian interpretations of the Queen of Sheba scriptures in the Hebrew Bible typically have emphasized both the historical and metaphorical values in the story. The account of the Queen of Sheba can be interpreted as Christian metaphor and analogy. The Queen's visit to Solomon has been compared to the metaphorical marriage of the Church to Christ where Solomon is the anointed one or messiah and Sheba represents a Gentile population submitting to the messiah.

The Queen of Sheba's chastity has also been depicted as a foreshadowing of the Virgin Mary, and the three gifts that she brought (gold, spices and stones) have been seen as analogous to the gifts of the Magi (gold, frankincense and myrrh), which is consistent with a passage from Isaiah 60:6; And they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring forth gold and incense; and they shall show forth the praises of the Lord.

Medieval depictions

Art in the Middle Ages depicting the visit of the Queen of Sheba includes the Portal of the Mother of God at the 13th Century Amiens Cathedral, which is included as an analogy as part of a larger depiction of the gifts of the Magi.. The 12th century cathedrals at Strasbourg, Chartres, Rochester and Canterbury include artistic renditions in such elements as stained glass windows and door jamb decorations.

Renaissance depictions

Boccaccio's On Famous Women (Latin: De Mulieribus Claris) follows Josephus in calling her Nicaula. Boccaccio goes on to explain that not only was she the queen of Ethiopia and Egypt, but also the queen of Arabia. She supposedly also had a grand palace on "a very large island" called Menroe which was located someplace on the Nile "practically on the other side of the world." From here Nicaula crossed the deserts of Arabia, through Ethiopia and Egypt, and up the the coast of the Red Sea, to come to Jerusalem to see the great King Solomon. Boccaccio also explains that Nicaula was also known as the Queen of Sheba in the "Sacred Scriptures".

Christine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies continues the convention of calling the Queen of Sheba, Nicaula. Piero della Francesca's frescoes in Arezzo (ca 1466) on the Legend of the True Cross, contain two panels on the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon. The legend links the beams of Solomon's palace (adored by Queen of Sheba) to the wood of the crucifixion. See the Piero della Francesca entry for images. The Renaissance continuation of the metaphorical view of the Queen of Sheba as an analogy to the gifts of the Magi is also clearly evident in the Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi, ca. 1510 by Hieronymus Bosch. Bosch chooses to depict a scene of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon in an ornately decorated collar worn by one of the Magi. For some reason, the Queen of Sheba is usually depicted as having hairy feet, or being entirely covered in hair, thousands of years after the fact. Marlowe's Doctor Faustus refers to the Queen of Sheba as "Saba", when Mephistopheles is trying to persuade Faustus of the wisdom of the women with whom he shall supposedly be presented every morning.

Modern theories

A theory has been voiced that the meeting between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba was not for love or admiration but a discussion about trade. According to the Bible Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber. The theory is that Solomon intended to routinely sail to East Africa and there trade, bypassing the South Arabian kingdom of Sheba which previously acted as middleman in this trade. The revisionist historian Ralph Ellis suggests that the Queen of Sheba (Seba) may have been the queen of Pharaoh Psusennes II, who ruled in Lower Egypt in this same era and whose Egyptian name was Pa-Seba-Khaen-Nuit. He suggests that the link between this queen and Ethiopia may have been derived from the Kebra Negast, which indicates that the eastern borders of Ethiopia terminated at Gaza and Jerusalem (KN 92).

The Queen of Sheba in popular culture

In Britain, and Canada, there is a common colloquial remark "And I'm the Queen of Sheba." or "If (that is so), then I'm the Queen of Sheba.", meaning "I do not believe that statement."

Another common colloquial usage in the UK and North America is to poke fun at another person who has dressed up fancily, or has perhaps displayed superior behavioral traits, resulting in someone remarking, "Who does she think she is, The Queen of Sheba?".

Songs

  • Bad Brains refer to the Queen of Sheba in "Sheba".
  • Bonnie Raitt in "Thing Called Love" sings "Baby, you know I ain't no Queen of Sheba." The song was written by John Hiatt.
  • Dolly Dots in the song "Leila Queen of Sheba" sings "this day about a story talk by Leila Queen of Sheba".
  • Cassandra Wilson refers to the Queen of Sheba as Makeda in the second verse of the song "Solomon Sang".
  • Nas refers to her in the song "Big Girl" from his Nastradamus CD.
  • Les Nubians refer to the Queen of Sheba in the song "Makeda".
  • Jandek refers to the Queen of Sheba in the song "Sheba Doesn't Have". ("The Queen of Sheba/Doesn’t have nothing on you/You dance on my necktie/Like it was your tattoo").
  • The Poor Righteous Teachers include the Queen of Sheba in a list of important black women in history in the video "Shakiyla".
  • The Raii musician Cheb Khaled describes Aicha's glamor as like the Queen of Sheba, "Elle est passée a cote de moi. Sans un regard, Reine de Sabbat."
  • World Wide Message Tribe has a song "Return of the Queen of Sheba" on the 1997 album Revived.
  • The Queen of Sheba is referred to in U2's newly released song "Wave of Sorrow", which was written during the 1980s as a reflection of Bono's experiences volunteering with the Ethiopian famine.
  • In his song "Window On The World", John Hiatt sings "The Queen of Sheba meets the Duke of Earl".
  • Patti Smith recorded song "Come Back Little Sheba" in 1996. It was released as a b-side to "Summer Cannibals". It contains the lyric "Robes of saffron/Robes of standing/A road of crimson/Spread at your feet".
  • Pusha T references her in the Clipse song "Momma I'm So Sorry" off of the Hell Hath No Fury album.

Operas

Ballets

Movies

Books

  • Wisdom's Daughter: A Novel of Solomon and Sheba (2005), written by India Edghill.
  • Small explicitly sexual role in American Gods (2002), as Bilquis, written by Neil Gaiman.
  • "Queen of Sheba and Biblical Scholarship", written by Dr Bernard Leeman, Queensland Academic Press 2005, (3rd edition 2007) ISBN 0-9758022-0-8
  • "Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen" (2001), written by Nicholas Clapp
  • Brief appearance in The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1874), by Flaubert
  • "Sandstorm", a novel written by James Rollins. The Queen of Sheba is featured prominently.
  • "Queen Sheba's Ring" (1910), by H. Rider Haggard.
  • The Butterfly that Stamped: one of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, featuring the queen "wise Balkis of Sheba" who is said to be married to the polygamist King Solomon son of David. She is the only one of 1000 wives who does not quarrel with Solomon, out of her adoration for him, and so is herself sad when the incessant quarrels of the other 999 wives saddens their husband. She eventually tricks Solomon into making all the other queens frightened of his power, so that they will not argue again.
  • "Menachem's seed", a novel published by Carl Djerassi in 1996 features the Queen of Sheba, when Menachem—the main male character of the novel—uses his interpretation of Solomon's relationship to the Queen as a vehicle to impress Melanie—the main female character.
  • Made mention to briefly in The English Patient (1993) by Michael Ondaatje
  • The Navigator A Numa File Book by Clive Cussler (2007)

Poems

Sport

See also

Footnotes

Primary sources

  • Joseph, Antiquitates iudaicae viii.6.2
  • Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historis vi.32.154

Secondary sources

Bibliography

  • Alessandro de Maigret. Arabia Felix, translated Rebecca Thompson. London: Stacey International, 2002. ISBN 1-900988-07-0
  • Andrey Korotayev. Ancient Yemen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-19-922237-1.



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