The story of the Queen of Sheba appears in religious texts sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Described in the Bible as simply a Queen of the East, modern scholars believe she came from the Kingdom of Axum in Ethiopia, the Kingdom of Saba in Yemen, or both. Their main clue is that she brought bales of incense with her as a gift; frankincense only grows in these two areas. Both countries claim her as theirs. Given that they are separated by only 25 kilometers of water, both could be right.
In these tales the Queen of Sheba is a seeker of truth and wisdom and she has heard that King Solomon of Israel is a very wise man. She travels on camel to Jerusalem to meet him and test his knowledge with questions and riddles. With her she brings frankincense, myrrh, gold and precious jewels.
King Solomon has heard of Sheba and her great kingdom. He has also heard that she has a strange feature, a left foot that is cloven like that of a goat and a hairy leg. Eager to see if the story is true, he has the floor of his court polished until it is like glass. When the Queen of Sheba walks across the floor, Solomon sees the reflection of her cloven foot. Right in front of his eyes, it transforms and becomes normal.
https://youtu.be/m7ZsZuZBdR8 (QUEEN SHEBA PBS)
The Real Queen of Sheba (AMAZING ANCIENT HISTORY DOCUMENTARY) Traveling back through time along the ancient incense trails of the Near and Middle East, Josh Bernstein seeks to unearth the real story behind the legends of the mysterious Queen of Sheba. He explores underground churches and ruined temples in northern Ethiopia, and journeys into the volatile tribal deserts of Yemen, where he must first earn the trust of machine gun-toting Bedouin tribesmen before he can explore a forgotten city named for the Bible's most famous queen.
The Queen of Sheba tests Solomon's wisdom, asking him many questions and giving him riddles to solve. He answers to her satisfaction and then he teaches her about his god Yahweh and she becomes a follower. This is how some Ethiopians believe Christianity came to their county. The Queen agrees to stay with King Solomon as a guest. An unmarried woman, she warns the King not to touch her. He replies that in exchange she should not take anything of his. He has tricked her, however. In the middle of her first night she is thirsty and she takes a glass of water. He confronts her and tells her that by breaking her agreement she has released him from his. They spend the night together and when she returns home from his kingdom, she is pregnant with a son.
She raises her son Menelik on her own. When he grows up, Menelik decides that he wants to meet his father and travels to Israel to meet King Solomon. When he returns, he takes with him the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred container that contained the Ten Commandments. In Ethiopian legend, the Ark has remained in Ethiopia ever since and Ethiopians see Menelik as the first in an unbroken line of Ethiopian kings that stretches into the 20th century.
KING SOLOMON
http://www.kingsolomonlegend.com/king-solomon-queen-of-sheba.html
King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
The Bible gives only a brief, unelaborated description of the royal encounter between King Solomon and the unnamed Queen of Sheba, who, being intrigued by the stories of Solomon's wisdom and wealth, embarked on the 1,400 mile journey from Sheba to Jerusalem to meet him. She had to cross the desert sands of Arabia, and travel 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 round trip each way, since camels could rarely travel more than 20 miles per day.
She
arrived in Jerusalem with a large group of attendants and a great
caravan of camels loaded with rare spices, large quantities of gold and
precious jewels. When she met with Solomon, she talked with him about
everything she had on her mind and tested his wisdom with questions and
riddles. Solomon had answers for all her questions, and nothing was too
hard for the king to explain to her. When the queen realized how very
wise Solomon was, and when she saw the palace he had built, she was
overwhelmed. She was also amazed at the food on his tables, the
organization of his officials and their splendid clothing, the
cup-bearers, and the burnt offerings Solomon made at the Jerusalem Temple.In the biblical accounts of this royal meeting, both in the book of Kings 1 and in the book of Chronicles 2, there is no hint of any romantic or sexual aspect to the encounter, which is depicted as a monarchial meeting on affairs of state. The only reference, which has sometimes been interpreted as referring to love between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, is found in the book of Song of Songs, whose authorship is attributed to Solomon.
Although
the story is not detailed, it has over the ages inspired many legends
and stories both in the Jewish and the Islamic traditions. In Islamic
literature the queen is known as Bilqis and it is told that she
converted from the worship of the sun to the worship of God and
thereafter either married Solomon himself or a Hamdani tribesman. In Persian folklore, she is considered the daughter of a Chinese king and a peri
- a type of supernatural being. The story of the Queen of Sheba
acquired special importance and impact in the Ethiopian tradition and
history. There she is referred to as Makeda and it is believed that she bore Solomon a son, who was the founder of the Ethiopian royal dynasty of emperors.
Sheba is identified with Saba, a nation once spanning along the Red Sea, on the coasts of what today are Eritrea, Ethiopia and Yemen. Some modern Arab academics place the queen not in Yemen, as did older Islamic sources, but rather as a ruler of a trading colony in Northwest Arabia.
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