Who Is the Queen of Sheba in the Bible?
Investigating the Queen of Sheba and her kingdom
Who is the Queen of Sheba in the Bible? Here is one artist’s depiction of the Queen of Sheba. It comes from the Medieval manuscript Bellifortis by Conrad Kyeser and dates to c. 1405.
Who is the Queen of Sheba? In the Bible we are introduced to an unnamed queen from the land of Sheba who travels to Jerusalem to meet King Solomon (see 1 Kings 10; 2 Chronicles 9). Accompanied by many attendants and camels, the Queen of Sheba brings a large quantity of spices, gold and precious stones with her. She is drawn to Jerusalem because of Solomon’s fame, and she tests the king with hard questions. Solomon is able to answer them all.
Impressed by Solomon’s wisdom—and by the riches of his kingdom—she proclaims, “Your wisdom and prosperity far surpass the report that I had heard” (1 Kings 10:7). The queen gives King Solomon 120 talents of gold, precious stones and the largest quantity of spices ever brought to Jerusalem (1 Kings 10:10). In return King Solomon gives her gifts and “every desire that she expressed” (1 Kings 10:13). After receiving these gifts, the queen returns to the land of Sheba with her retinue.
Investigating the Location of the Land of Sheba
The Biblical account of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon ends there, but later Jewish, Christian and Islamic sources have elaborated the story—adding details to the famous queen’s visit. In his article “Where Is the Land of Sheba—Arabia or Africa?” published in the September/October 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Bar Kribus investigates the location of the land of Sheba and looks at the figure of the Queen of Sheba—both in the Bible and in a text called the Kebra Nagast.
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Queen Makeda
Dated between the 6th–14th centuries C.E., the Kebra Nagast (The Glory of Kings) is an important text to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It names the Queen of Sheba as the beautiful queen Makeda and identifies the land of Sheba as ancient Ethiopia. Kribus thoroughly examines the latter claim in his article “Where Is the Land of Sheba—Arabia or Africa?”
According to the Kebra Nagast, Queen Makeda travels to Jerusalem and has a love affair with King Solomon. Makeda then returns to the land of Sheba—giving birth to a son, Menelik, along the way. Menelik is raised in Ethiopia, but when he turns 22, he travels to Jerusalem to meet his father. King Solomon is delighted with his firstborn son and tries in vain to convince Menelik to remain in Israel and succeed him as king. However, Menelik chooses to return to the land of Sheba. Solomon sends the firstborn sons of Israel’s elders with his son from Israel to Ethiopia, and the Ark of the Covenant travels with them. To this day, many Ethiopians believe that the Ark of the Covenant resides within the Chapel of the Tablet next to the Church of Maryam Tsion in Aksum, Ethiopia.
Is this the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant? Many Ethiopians believe that the Ark of the Covenant resides within the Chapel of the Tablet next to the Church of Maryam Tsion in Aksum, Ethiopia. They believe that the Ark traveled with Solomon’s firstborn son, Menelik, from Jerusalem to the land of Sheba. Where is the land of Sheba? According to the Kebra Nagast, it is ancient Ethiopia. Photo: “Maryam Sion in Axum Nebenbau Mit Der Bundeslade 2010” by Jensis65 is licensed under CC-by-SA-3.0
Ethiopians claim the Queen of Sheba as part of their heritage, and through her union with King Solomon, Ethiopians also claimed a connection between their kings and the Davidic monarchy of Israel. Bar Kribus explains: “Their [Ethiopian] kings were seen as direct descendants of the House of David, rulers by divine right.”
But is the land of Sheba truly ancient Ethiopia, as purported by the Kebra Nagast? Archaeological and historical sources document a Kingdom of Saba (Sheba) during Biblical times in modern-day Yemen. Those in ancient Ethiopia were fully aware of the Kingdom of Saba in southern Arabia—and sometimes even appropriated aspects of their culture.
The Queen of Sheba and King Solomon: Another depiction of the Queen of Sheba is seen in Giovanni Demin’s 19th-century painting Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, which shows the meeting of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon.
Where is the land of Sheba? Is it in Africa or Arabia? Bar Kribus wades through history, archaeology, tradition and legend as he pieces together the story of the Queen of Sheba and investigates the land of Sheba. Who has the rightful claim to the Queen of Sheba? Read Kribus’s surprising conclusion in “Where Is the Land of Sheba—Arabia or Africa?” in the September/October 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
BAS Library Members: Read the full article “Where Is the Land of Sheba—Arabia or Africa?” by Bar Kribus in the September/October 2016 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
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This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on August 31, 2016.
Related reading in Bible History Daily
Expedition Claims Evidence of Queen of Sheba Found in Ethiopia
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The story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba as told in the Koran
Prophet-King David’s son, Solomon, was destined for great things than his father. He succeeded his father as a king and a prophet, and was given, like his father, sound judgment and lore. Solomon was taught the languages of animals, and Allah subjected for Solomon the wind, blowing by his order towards the land upon which Allah have blessed –– Jerusalem.
From among all humankind, King Solomon was the only king who ruled both human beings and jinn with a strong sway, and his kingdom’s army comprised soldiers of the human, the jinn, and the birds. Under the control of King Solomon worked every builder and diver of the Satan, who constructed to him whatever he wished of chapels, statues, and cooking pots, removable ones and immobile huge others.
While he was one day marching in the vanguard of his amazing army, they approached a valley filled with ants. “O ants,” said an ant to its fellow ants, “enter your houses, lest Solomon and his soldiers crush you unconsciously!” The magnificent king smiled at her saying, and said in prayer, “My Lord! Inspire me to give thanks for the boon You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents; and inspire me to do a good deed that make You content of me; and regard me, by Your Bless, as one of Your benevolent slaves.”
Once, on inspecting the condition of his army, King Solomon noticed that the hoopoe was absent, and the matter stirred his anger. “What about the hoopoe? Why I do not see it? Is it absent? I will put it to torture, or will slaughter it, except it could introduce an accepted reason of his absence.”
Before long, the hoopoe came and reasoned its absence. “I have come acquainted with what you knew not; and brought forth to you from Sheba true news. I have found that their kingdom is ruled by a woman, who has been given of every kind of regalia; and found them worshiping the sun instead of Allah.”
“We will find out whether you are truthful or being of the liars,” retorted the just monarch, who ordered that a message should be written to that queen, calling her to submit peacefully to him. “Go with this writing of mine and cast it to them;” dictated the king to his messenger, the hoopoe, “then turn away and watch what they will decide!”
The hoopoe duly acted on the orders. It travelled back to Sheba, cast the message onto the throne, and lurked to hear the decision. When the queen entered the hall and found Solomon’s message, she read it and at once called out to their chancellors. She was indeed a democratic one, and so she did not issue any orders before listening to their opinions.
“We are of great power, and of a great experience of warfare,” said the majority of her chancellors, “and the procedures are to you; see what your decision is.”
“When kings enter a town, they turn the nobles of it into humiliated citizens,” replied the astute queen, after a short while of thinking. “I shall send to them a gift, and shall wait for their reply to our legate.”
The hoopoe carried this to King Solomon, and when the queen’s messengers arrived they were reproached for such a bribe, and were also informed that, if they would not submit, the king would certainly march against them with soldiers that they could not match with. The legate returned with this decision, and the queen could do nothing but comply.
When the arrangements for the delegation of Sheba were made, a magnificent procession, headed by the queen herself, started off to Jerusalem. King Solomon was informed of the news, and ordered that the Queen of Sheba’s throne should be brought from her land before her arrival. He investigated who among his courtiers could accomplish this mission as soon as possible.
“I can bring it to you before you break up this meeting,” said a demon of the jinn, but another one, who had had lore of the Book, said that he could brought it in a trice. The King consented, and the demon dully accomplished his promise. When Solomon found the throne settles before him, he prayed: “That is of my Lord God’s Favor to test me whether I shall thank or deny.”
The throne was disguised to see whether the queen would be guided or would she be of those who never be guided, and on her arrival it was shown to her.
“Is your throne like this?” she was asked.
“it was almost like it,” she replied.
King Solomon smiled and then invited her to enter the edifice, whose ground was made up of mirrors. The queen thought that she was going to ford through a water pool, and so she tucked up her dress. When the king revealed to her the fact of the edifice’s ground, she announced: “My Lord God! I had wronged myself; and now I am submitted with Solomon to Allah, the Lord of existence.”
Anything written in the qaran cannot be trusted as it is satanic in nature..only that written in the Holy Bible as word of God can be trusted..there is NO allah, another name for satan,the liar
well here’s a shock for you Mel ,which god are you talking about as you quite rightly say the Qua-ran is of the devil, well so is the word of god you are talking about, as Yahuwah (Yahweh) is not god and his word is only the 5 books of Moses and the book of revelation. those are the only word that came from Yahuwah our father in heaven. it was man that created the the word of god for our father said my name is above all names. not I am the god above all gods. god, lord, are but titles and any thing else we want to call him is a title .FOR HIS NAME IS YAHUWAH. AND THE SONS NAME IS YAHUSHUA. NOT JESUS AS JESUS ONLY CAME INTO THE BIBLE AROUND 1611 HE WAS AN ARAMAIC HEBREW NOT ENGLISH OR ANY OTHER NAME IN ANY OTHER LANGUAGE. So now we do have a problem and that is his word. his word has changed first by the Hebrew nation to Elohim , then by the Catholics which actually created the bible (72 books) in 395 ad and then by Martin Luther in 1611 66 books which all the bibles follow today in his format. SO NOW WHICH WORD ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.
Well Mel! here is the truth…The English word for “God” has become a source of confusion for Christians since at least the Anglo-Saxon era. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary says that the origin of the word ‘god’ comes from a Germanic word ‘gad,’ pronounced as “gohdt.”
The following information on the origin of the word ‘god’ will help to understand why we use it in our vernacular.
GOD – The English word God is identical with the Anglo-Saxon word for “good,” and therefore it is believed that the name God refers to the divine goodness. (See Oehler’s Theol. of Old Test.; Strong’s and Young’s concordances.) (From New Unger’s Bible Dictionary)
Further information on the source of our word for ‘God’ is listed below:
Word origin: God – Our word god goes back via Germanic to Indo-European, in which a corresponding ancestor form meant “invoked one.” The word’s only surviving non-Germanic relative is Sanskrit hu, invoke the gods, a form which appears in the Rig Veda, most ancient of Hindu scriptures: puru-hutas, “much invoked,” epithet of the rain-and-thunder god Indra.
Now if the sources noted above are accurate, then the word that we use for the Supreme Being, God, comes from a very pagan origin. Thus the word god is used generically by many different religions to refer to their deity or “invoked one.”
This informational website gives a well elaborated & detailed episodes of King Solomon n Queen of Shebas meeting n their life ,which remains little in complete in Bible,well researched,it even gives the most likely location of the ark of the covenant, loved this site,keep it up
there are so many religions, which one is right – probably none of them. Wake up people. God could have written the message in the stars if they were all powerful. There wouldn’t be diseases, natural disasters, poisonous chemicals, mental illness etc. if they were all loving. There wouldn’t be contradictions in the bible and other religious text, infact there would ATLEAST only be one religious text and no confusion about which god to follow, because if there was a god they would make sure that everyone knows there is ONE god. and they wouldn’t put it in some stupid book, and likeI said, they could write it in the stars with their god powers, I’m sure they would have some imagination being god and all. Logically this boils down to two conclusions – God doesn’t give a shit about us or what we think of him/her/it? OR more likely, there is no god. Don’t worry, its probably best this way, we don’t need a god we just need each other, we need to look out for our fellow man and woman and support each other, we don’t need no magical being because we are strong and we have each other. The end.
If you say there is no God then who created you?who created the earth on which you are walking on?Who created the sky that covers us.Who created the sun and the moon?Tell me was it by magic that those things came into existence.Since cars were created by human beings so as human beings were created by THE SUPREME CREATOR
Amin Abass
Genesis 1New King James Version (NKJV)
The History of Creation
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was[a] on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
this is God said in the old testament. all happened in old testament revealed in new testament
The Eternal Word
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend[a] it.
New International Version
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Hebrew 1:3
and He said:
John 14:6 New International Version (NIV)
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
1 John 5New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Overcoming the World
5 Whoever believes that Jesus is the [a]Christ is [b]born of God, and whoever loves the [c]Father loves the child [d]born of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and [e]observe His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For whatever is [f]born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not [g]with the water only, but [h]with the water and [i]with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 [j]the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are [k]in agreement. 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. 11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
This Is Written That You May Know
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence which we have [l]before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
16 If anyone sees his brother [m]committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and [n]God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.
18 We know that no one who is [o]born of God sins; but He who was [p]born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.
Footnotes:
1 John 5:1 I.e. Messiah
1 John 5:1 Or begotten
1 John 5:1 Lit one who begets
1 John 5:1 Or begotten
1 John 5:2 Lit do
1 John 5:4 Or begotten
1 John 5:6 Lit in
1 John 5:6 Lit in
1 John 5:6 Lit in
1 John 5:8 A few late mss add …in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And there are three that testify on earth, the Spirit
1 John 5:8 Lit for the one thing
1 John 5:14 Lit toward
1 John 5:16 Lit sinning
1 John 5:16 Or God will give him life, that is, to those who…
1 John 5:18 Or begotten
1 John 5:18 Or begotten