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111-731: The text contains an account of how the Queen of Sheba (Queen Makeda of Ethiopia) met king Solomon of Jerusalem and about how the Ark of the Covenant came to Ethiopia with their son Menelik I (Menyelek). It also discusses the conversion of Ethiopians from the worship of the Sun, Moon, and stars to that of the "Lord God of Israel". As the Ethiopianist Edward Ullendorff explained in the 1967 Schweich Lectures , "The Kebra Nagast

222-540: A Latin translation. Another 35 years passed before the entire text was published, by Carl Bezold , with commentary, in 1905. The first English translation was prepared by E. A. Wallis Budge , and was published in two editions in 1922 and 1932. Modern scholarly opinion is that there is no historical evidence supporting the legends relating to the claimed origins of the Solomonic dynasty in the Kebra Negast . There

333-464: A company formed from the first-born sons of the elders of his kingdom. This company of young men, upset over leaving Jerusalem, smuggled the Ark of the Covenant from Solomon's Temple and out of the kingdom (chapters 45–48) without Menelik's knowledge. He had asked Solomon only for a single tassel from the tekhelet -coloured travel cloth covering the Ark, and Solomon had given him the entire thing. During

444-669: A final prophecy that the power of Rome will be eclipsed by the power of Ethiopia, and describes how king Kaleb of Axum will subdue the Jews living in Najran , and make his younger son Gabra Masqal his heir (chapter 117). According to the colophon attached to most of the existing copies, the Kebra Nagast originally was written in Coptic , then translated into Arabic in the "year of mercy" 409 (dated to AD 1225), and then into Ge'ez by

555-403: A kingdom of Sheba (based on varying interpretations of Hebrew mlkt ) that came to Jerusalem. Baba Bathra 15b: "Whoever says malkath Sheba (I Kings X, 1) means a woman is mistaken; ... it means the kingdom (מַלְכֻת) of Sheba". This is explained to mean that she was a woman who was not in her position because of being married to the king, but through her own merit. The most elaborate account of

666-578: A man with knowledge of the Scripture instead has her throne moved to King Solomon's palace in the blink of an eye, at which King Solomon exclaims his gratitude towards God as King Solomon assumes this is God's test to see if King Solomon is grateful or ungrateful. King Solomon disguises her throne to test her awareness of her own throne, asking her if it seems familiar. She answers that during her journey to him, her court had informed her of King Solomon's prophethood, and since then she and her subjects had made

777-513: A palace on "a very large island" called Meroe , located in the Nile river . From there Nicaula travelled to Jerusalem to see King Solomon . O. Henry 's short story The Gift of the Magi contains the following description to convey the preciousness of the protagonist Della Dillingham Young's hair: "Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out

888-688: A ring so their child may identify himself to Solomon. Following her departure, Solomon has a dream in which the sun leaves Israel (chapter 30). On the journey home, she gives birth to Menelik in Bala Zädisareya (chapter 32). At 22, Menelik travels to Jerusalem through Gaza , seeking Solomon's blessing, and identifies himself to his father with the ring. Overjoyed by this reunion, Solomon tries to convince Menelik to stay and succeed him as king, but Menelik insists on returning to his mother in Ethiopia. King Solomon then settled for sending home with him

999-476: A son, whom she named Baina-leḥkem (i.e. bin al-ḥakīm, "Son of the Wise Man", later called Menilek). After the boy had grown up in Ethiopia, he went to Jerusalem carrying the ring and was received with great honors. The king and the people tried in vain to persuade him to stay. Solomon gathered his nobles and announced that he would send his first-born son to Ethiopia together with their first-borns. He added that he

1110-414: A specific family line, such as discussing the family tree of Constantine (chapters 72-73) or to describe two separate seeds of Shem (chapters 74-75). In chapter 90, we see a heavy emphasis on God's law and the rules he sets forth for his believers to follow, which he presents by choosing the house of Jacob to reign as kings and spread God's message. The author then describes Menelik's arrival at Axum, where he

1221-467: A team of clerics in Ethiopia—Yəsḥaq, Yəmḥarännä ˀAb, Ḥəzbä-Krəstos, Ǝndrəyas, Filəp̣p̣os, and Mäḥari ˀAb—during the office of Abuna Abba Giyorgis and at the command of the governor of Enderta Ya'ibika Igzi'. Based on the testimony of this colophon, "Conti Rossini, Littmann, and Cerulli , inter alios , have marked off the period 1314 to 1321–1322 for the composition of the book". During the time of

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1332-481: A very edifying character. The two that are genuine riddles are: "Without movement while living, it moves when its head is cut off", and "Produced from the ground, man produces it, while its food is the fruit of the ground". The answer to the former is, "a tree, which, when its top is removed, can be made into a moving ship"; the answer to the latter is, "a wick". The rabbis who denounce Solomon interpret 1 Kings 10 :13 as meaning that Solomon had criminal intercourse with

1443-525: A voyage to 'India'. When their ship stopped at one of the harbors of the Red Sea , local people massacred the whole crew, sparing the two boys, who were taken as slaves to the King of Axum. The two boys soon gained the favor of the king, who raised them to positions of trust. Shortly before his death, the king freed them. The widowed queen , however, prevailed upon them to remain at the court and assist her in

1554-468: A warrior and irrigator who lived around the same time, in the late 9th century BC , which can be traced in folklore. Thus, the 2nd-century AD writer Melito of Sardis retells a Syrian legend in which the father of Semiramis is called Hadhad. In addition, the Hebrew legend made the queen the mother of Nebuchadnezzar and Semiramis his wife. The treatment of Solomon in literature, art, and music also involves

1665-611: Is a figure first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible . In the original story, she brings a caravan of valuable gifts for the Israelite King Solomon . This account has undergone extensive Jewish , Islamic , Yemenite and Ethiopian elaborations, and it has become the subject of one of the most widespread and fertile cycles of legends in Asia and Africa . Modern historians and archaeologists identify Sheba as

1776-635: Is associated with the oasis of El-Ula north of Medina ). According to some scholars, the Kingdom of Israel first came into contact with the northern Sabaeans, and only later, perhaps through their mediation, with Saba in the south. The historian J. A. Montgomery has suggested that in the Xth century BC the Sabeans lived in northern Arabia, although they controlled trade routes from the south. The famous Arabian explorer Harry St John Philby also believed that

1887-642: Is attested in the early 9th century BC and may have begun as early as the 10th. A recent theory suggests that the Ophel inscription in Jerusalem was written in the Sabaic language and that the text provides evidence for trade connections between ancient South Arabia and the Kingdom of Judah during the 10th century BC The ancient Sabaic Awwām Temple , known in folklore as Maḥram ("the Sanctuary of") Bilqīs ,

1998-683: Is depicted on a window in King's College Chapel, Cambridge . The reception of the queen was a popular subject during the Italian Renaissance . It appears in the bronze doors to the Florence Baptistery by Lorenzo Ghiberti , in frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli ( Campo Santo , Pisa ) and in the Raphael Loggie ( Vatican ). Examples of Venetian art are by Tintoretto ( Prado ) and Veronese ( Pinacotheca , Turin ). In

2109-418: Is feasted, and Makeda abdicates the throne in his favour. Menelik then engages in a series of military campaigns with the Ark, and "no man conquered him, on the contrary, whosoever attacked him was conquered" (chapter 94). After chapter 94, the author takes a step back and describes a more global view of what he had been describing in previous chapters. After praising the king of Ethiopia, the king of Egypt, and

2220-420: Is known for its might and inclination towards war, however that the command rests solely with her. In an act suggesting the diplomatic qualities of her leadership, she responds not with brute force, but by sending her ambassadors to present a gift to King Solomon. He refuses the gift, declaring that God gives far superior gifts and that the ambassadors are the ones only delighted by the gift. King Solomon instructs

2331-455: Is no credible basis to the claims that the Aksumite royal house was descended from Solomon (or that any Aksumite king even claimed such an ancestry) or that Yekuno Amlak, the 13th century founder of the dynasty, was descended from the Aksumite royal house. Solomon is dated to the 10th century BCE, hundreds of years before the founding of Aksum. Historian Harold G. Marcus describes the stories of

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2442-477: Is no record of Ethiopian monarchs claiming descent from Solomon before the 13th century. Careful study of the text has revealed traces of Arabic, possibly pointing to an Arabic Vorlage (prior version), but no clear evidence of a previous Coptic version. Many scholars doubt that a Coptic version ever existed, and that the history of the text goes back no further than the Arabic vorlage. The numerous quotations in

2553-441: Is not merely a literary work, but it is the repository of Ethiopian national and religious feelings". It has been described as “an Abyssinian politico-religious epic” and "medieval-era mythology". Nadia Nurhussein wrote that "The Kebra Nagast gave textual authority to a then newly articulated mythology of Abyssinia’s long imperial history, legitimizing a “Solomonic” dynasty' that claimed to reach back three thousand years earlier to

2664-420: Is not stated, came to Jerusalem "with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones" ( 1 Kings 10 :2). "Never again came such an abundance of spices" (10:10; 2 Chronicles 9 :1–9) as those she gave to Solomon. She came "to prove him with hard questions", which Solomon answered to her satisfaction. They exchanged gifts, after which she returned to her land. The use of

2775-533: Is presented in the form of a debate by the 318 "orthodox fathers" of the First Council of Nicaea . These fathers pose the question, "Of what doth the Glory of Kings consist?" One Gregory answers with a speech (chapters 3–17) which ends with the statement that a copy of the Glory of God was made by Moses and kept in the Ark of the Covenant. After this, the archbishop Dĕmâtĕyôs reads from a book he had found in

2886-662: The Book of the Bee ). Marcus thus describes it as "a pastiche of legends ... [that] blended local and regional oral traditions and style and substance derived from the Old and New Testaments, various apocryphal texts, Jewish and Islamic commentaries, and Patristic writings ". One of the earliest collections of documents of Ethiopia came through the writings of Francisco Álvares , official envoy which king Manuel I of Portugal , sent to Dawit II of Ethiopia , under Ambassador Dom Rodrigo de Lima. In

2997-666: The 8th - 7th century BC , Arabian queens in the more northern regions of Arabia are known. In the 1950s Wendell Philips (Wendell Philips) excavated the temple of the goddess Balqis at Marib. In 2005, American archaeologists discovered in Sana'a the ruins of a temple near the palace of the biblical Queen of Sheba in Marib (north of Sana'a). According to the American researcher Madeleine Phillips, they found columns, numerous drawings and objects dating back three millennia. Researchers attribute

3108-463: The Ark of the Covenant , after their leader Azaryas had offered a sacrifice as commanded by one God's angel. With much wailing, the procession left Jerusalem on a wind cart led and carried by the archangel Michael. Having arrived at the Red Sea , Azaryas revealed to the people that the Ark is with them. David prayed to the Ark and the people rejoiced, singing, dancing, blowing horns and flutes, and beating drums. The Ark showed its miraculous powers during

3219-685: The Babylonian Captivity (c. 550 BCE). The purpose of the story seems to be to glorify the figure of King Solomon, who is portrayed as a ruler who enjoyed authority and captured the imagination of other rulers. Such an exaltation is dissonant with the general critical tone of the Deuteronomic history towards King Solomon. Later, this account was also placed in the Second Book of the Paralipomenon (II Chronicles), written in

3330-587: The Kebra Nagast as a "pastiche of legends" created to legitimize Yekuno Amlak's seizure of power. David Northrup notes that the Kebra Nagast's imaginative and emotive account of a line of descent from Solomon and Sheba to the kings of Aksum and the new Solomonic dynasty is highly improbable and unsupported by evidence. It is a myth. Makeda The Queen of Sheba , known as Bilqis in Yemeni and Islamic tradition and as Makeda in Ethiopian tradition,

3441-493: The Kebra Nagast at first hand, owing to his excellent command of the language. His manuscript is a valuable work. His brother, Apollinare, also went out to the country as a missionary and was, along with his two companions, stoned to death in Tigray . In the first quarter of the 16th century, P.N. Godinho published some traditions about King Solomon and his son Menelik , derived from the Kebra Nagast . Further information about

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3552-593: The Kebra Nagast . The Kebra Nagast itself claims that the original text was found by the Archbishop of Rome (i.e. Constantinople ) in the Church of Saint Sophia and that he read the manuscript claimed the world belonged to the Emperor of Rome and the Emperor of Ethiopia . Hubbard details the many sources that the compiler of the Kebra Nagast drew on in creating this work. They include not only both Testaments of

3663-685: The Midrash ( Prov. ii. 6; Yalḳ. ii., § 1085, Midrash ha-Hefez ), more riddles to test his wisdom. A Yemenite manuscript entitled "Midrash ha-Hefez" (published by S. Schechter in Folk-Lore , 1890, pp. 353 et seq.) gives nineteen riddles, most of which are found scattered through the Talmud and the Midrash, which the author of the "Midrash ha-Hefez" attributes to the Queen of Sheba. Most of these riddles are simply Bible questions, some not of

3774-632: The Settlement era. Researchers have noted that the Queen of Sheba's visit to Jerusalem could conceivably have been a trade mission related to the Israelite king's efforts to settle on the shores of the Red Sea and thereby undermine the monopoly of Saba and other South Arabian kingdoms on caravan trade with Syria and Mesopotamia . Assyrian sources confirm that South Arabia was engaged in International Trade as early as 890 BC, so

3885-578: The Solomonic dynasty actually began in 1270 with the emperor Yekuno Amlak , who, with the support of the Ethiopian Church , overthrew the Zagwe dynasty , which had ruled Ethiopia since sometime during the 10th century. The link to King Solomon provided a strong foundation for Ethiopian national unity. "Ethiopians see their country as God's chosen country, the final resting place that he chose for

3996-465: The Zagwe dynasty , the chief of Enderta played a major role in supporting the Solomonids along with the chief priest of Aksum by the name of Tekeste Birhane; the two are listed among the most influential dignitires on the side of Yekuno Amlak . Other sources put it as a work of the fourteenth century Nebura’ed Yeshaq of Aksum. The central Solomonic narrative of the text is thought to derive from

4107-467: The Zagwe dynasty , who believed the Axumites were descended from Solomon . "Makeda" might have its origins in multiple terms. Sabaean inscriptions mention mlkt ( 𐩣𐩡𐩫𐩩 , "queen"); furthermore, Sabaean tribes knew the title of mqtwyt ( 𐩣𐩤𐩩𐩥𐩺𐩩 , "high official"). Alternatively Makueda , the personal name of the queen in Ethiopian legend might be interpreted as a popular rendering of

4218-482: The coronation of the virgin . Sculptures of the Queen of Sheba are found on great Gothic cathedrals such as Chartres , Rheims , Amiens , and Wells . The 12th century cathedrals at Strasbourg , Chartres , Rochester and Canterbury include artistic renditions in stained glass windows and doorjamb decorations. Likewise of Romanesque art , the enamel depiction of a black woman at Klosterneuburg Monastery . The Queen of Sheba, standing in water before Solomon,

4329-547: The 14th-century (?) Ethiopic version of the Alexander romance , Alexander the Great of Macedonia (Ethiopic Meqédon ) is said to have met a queen Kandake of Nubia . The tradition that the biblical Queen of Sheba was an ingenuous ruler of Ethiopia who visited King Solomon in Jerusalem is repeated in a 1st-century account by Josephus . He identified Solomon's visitor as a queen of Egypt and Ethiopia Historians believe that

4440-580: The 17th century, Claude Lorrain painted The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba ( National Gallery , London ). Piero della Francesca 's frescoes in Arezzo (c. 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. The Renaissance continuation of

4551-480: The Ark – and Sheba and her son were the means by which it came there". Despite the fact that the dynasty officially ended in 1769 with Emperor Iyoas , Ethiopian rulers continued to trace their connection to it, right up to the last 20th-century emperor, Haile Selassie . According to one tradition, the Ethiopian Jews ( Beta Israel , "Falashas") also trace their ancestry to Menelik I, son of King Solomon and

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4662-754: The Bible (although heavier use is made of the Old Testament than the New ), but he detects evidence of Rabbinical sources, and influence from deuterocanonical or apocryphal works (especially the Book of Enoch and Book of Jubilees , both canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and such Syriac works as the Book of the Cave of Treasures , and its derivatives the Book of Adam and Eve and

4773-754: The Canticles is assumed to have been black due to a passage in Song of Songs 1:5, which the Revised Standard Version (1952) translates as "I am very dark, but comely", as does Jerome ( Latin : Nigra sum, sed formosa ), while the New Revised Standard Version (1989) has "I am black and beautiful", as the Septuagint ( Ancient Greek : μέλαινα εἰμί καί καλή ). One legend has it that the Queen of Sheba brought Solomon

4884-597: The Ethiopian Book of Aksum , Makeda is described as establishing a new capital city at Azeba . Edward Ullendorff holds that Makeda is a corruption of Candace , the name or title of several Ethiopian queens from Meroe or Seba . Candace was the name of that queen of the Ethiopians whose chamberlain was converted to Christianity under the preaching of Philip the Evangelist ( Acts 8 :27) in 30 AD. In

4995-585: The Jews. These chapters seek to prove by Old Testament allegories and proof-texts the Messianic purpose of Jesus, the validity of the Ethiopian forms of worship, and the spiritual supremacy of Ethiopia over Israel". Hubbard further speculates that this selection from the Old Testament might be as old as Frumentius , who had converted the Kingdom of Axum to Christianity. The Kebra Nagast concludes with

5106-510: The Queen of Sheba and the ships of Ophir served as a basis for legends about the Israelites traveling in the Queen of Sheba's entourage when she returned to her country to bring up her child by Solomon. Christian scriptures mention a "queen of the South" ( Greek : βασίλισσα νότου , Latin : Regina austri ), who "came from the uttermost parts of the earth", i.e. from the extremities of

5217-489: The Queen of Sheba as Saba , when Mephistopheles is trying to persuade Faustus of the wisdom of the women with whom he supposedly shall be presented every morning. Saint Frumentius Frumentius ( Ge'ez : ፍሬምናጦስ ; died c. 383) was a Phoenician Christian missionary and the first bishop of Axum who brought Christianity to the Kingdom of Aksum . He is sometimes known by other names, such as Abuna ("Our Father") and Aba Salama ("Father of Peace"). He

5328-454: The Queen of Sheba did not originate from Southern Arabia, but from Northern Arabia, and that the legends about her at some point blended with the stories of Zenobia , the warrior queen of Palmyra (modern Tadmor, Syria ), who lived in the 3rd century CE and converted to Judaism. For example, it is told (by one of Mohammed's biographers) that it was in Palmyra, in the 8th century during

5439-465: The Queen of Sheba, the offspring of which was Nebuchadnezzar , who destroyed the Temple (comp. Rashi ad loc.). According to others, the sin ascribed to Solomon in 1 Kings 11 :7 et seq. is only figurative: it is not meant that Solomon fell into idolatry , but that he was guilty of failing to restrain his wives from idolatrous practises ( Shab. 56b). The Alphabet of Sirach avers that Nebuchadnezzar

5550-668: The Queen of Sheba. An opinion that appears more historical is that the Falashas descend from those Jews who settled in Egypt after the first exile , and who, upon the fall of the Persian domination (539–333 BC), on the borders of the Nile, penetrated into the Sudan, whence they went into the western parts of Abyssinia. Several emperors have stressed the importance of the Kebra Negast . One of

5661-410: The Queen, referring to her as "a woman ruling them" ( Arabic : امْرَأَةً تَمْلِكُهُمْ ), the nation of Sheba. According to some, he then married the Queen, while other traditions say that he gave her in marriage to a King of Hamdan . According to the scholar Al-Hamdani , the Queen of Sheba was the daughter of Ilsharah Yahdib , the Sabaean king of South Arabia. In another tale, she is said to be

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5772-456: The Source of the Nile was published in 1813, a description of the contents of the original manuscript was included. In due course these documents were given to the Bodleian Library ( shelfmark Bruce 87). August Dillmann prepared a summary of the contents of the Kebra Nagast , and published its colophon, but no substantial portion of the narrative in the original language was available until F. Praetorius published Chapters 19 through 32 with

5883-412: The South" of the Gospels (i.e., the Queen of Sheba, who is assumed to have been Ethiopian). Others have proposed either the marriage of Solomon with the Pharaoh's daughter , or his marriage with an Israelite woman, the Shulamite . The former was the favorite opinion of the mystical interpreters to the end of the 18th century; the latter has obtained since its introduction by Good (1803). The bride of

5994-434: The above verse ( ayah ), after scouting nearby lands, a bird known as the hud-hud ( hoopoe ) returns to King Solomon relating that the land of Sheba is ruled by a queen. In a letter, Solomon invites the Queen of Sheba, who like her followers had worshipped the sun , to submit to God . She expresses that the letter is noble and asks her chief advisers what action should be taken. They respond by mentioning that her kingdom

6105-449: The ambassadors to return to the Queen with a stern message that if he travels to her, he will bring a contingent that she cannot defeat. The Queen then makes plans to visit him at his palace. Before she arrives, King Solomon asks several of his chiefs who will bring him the Queen of Sheba's throne before they come to him in complete submission. An Ifrit first offers to move her throne before King Solomon would rise from his seat. However,

6216-444: The analogy between the Queen's visit to Solomon and the adoration of the Magi is evident in the Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi (c. 1510) by Hieronymus Bosch . Boccaccio's On Famous Women ( Latin : De Mulieribus Claris ) follows Josephus in calling the Queen of Sheba Nicaula . Boccaccio writes she is the Queen of Ethiopia and Egypt , and that some people say she is also the queen of Arabia . He writes that she had

6327-502: The ancient South Arabian kingdom of Saba that existed in modern-day Yemen, although no trace of the queen herself has been found. The Queen's existence is disputed among some historians. The Queen of Sheba ( Hebrew : מַלְכַּת שְׁבָא , romanized :  Malkaṯ Šəḇāʾ , in the Hebrew Bible ; Koinē Greek : βασίλισσα Σαβά , romanized:  basílissa Sabá , in the Septuagint ; Syriac : ܡܠܟܬ ܫܒܐ ; Ge'ez : ንግሥተ ሳባ , romanized:  Nəgśətä Saba ), whose name

6438-423: The arrival in Jerusalem in Solomon's time of a trading mission from a South Arabian kingdom seems quite possible. There is, however, a problem with the chronology: Solomon lived from approximately 965 to 926 BC , and the first traces of the Sabean monarchy appear some 150 years later. In the 19th century, explorers I. Halevi and Glaser found in the Arabian Desert the ruins of the huge city of Marib . Among

6549-566: The birthplace of the Queen of Sheba or her prototype was not South Arabia but North Arabia is also quite widespread. Among other North Arabian tribes, the Sabaeans are mentioned on the stela of Tiglath-Pileser III . These northern Sabeans can be associated in a number of ways with the Sabeans (Sabeans) mentioned in the book of Job ( Job 1:15 ), the Sheba of the book of the prophet Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 27:22 ), and with Abrahams grandson Sheba ( Genesis 25:3 , cf. also Genesis 10:7 , Genesis 10:28 ) (the name of Sheba's brother Dedan, mentioned next to it,

6660-461: The book Domitius was found, which has established not only Ethiopia's possession of the true Ark of the Covenant, but that the Solomonic dynasty is descended from the first-born son of Solomon (chapter 95). Gregory then delivers an extended speech with prophetic elements (chapters 95–112), forming what Hubbard calls a "Patristic collection of Prophecies": "There can be little doubt that chapters 102–115 are written as polemic against, if not an evangel to,

6771-402: The capital of Aethiopia, and changing its name from Seba to Meroe . Josephus affirms that the Queen of Sheba or Saba came from this region, and that it bore the name of Saba before it was known by that of Meroe. There seems also some affinity between the word Saba and the name or title of the kings of the Aethiopians, Sabaco . The Talmud ( Bava Batra 15b) insists that it was not a woman but

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6882-439: The church of "Sophia", which introduces what Hubbard calls "the centerpiece" of this work, the story of Makeda (better known as the Queen of Sheba), King Solomon, Menelik I, and how the Ark came to Ethiopia (chapters 19–94). Although the author of the final redaction identified this Gregory with Gregory Thaumaturgus , who lived in the 3rd century before this Council, the time and the allusion to Gregory's imprisonment for 15 years by

6993-427: The contents of the Kebra Nagast was supplied by Baltazar Téllez (1595–1675), the author of the Historia General de Etiopía Alta (Coimbra, 1660). The sources of Téllez's work were the histories of Manuel de Almeida, Afonso Mendes and Jerónimo Lobo . It was not until the close of the eighteenth century, when James Bruce of Kinnaird, the famous Scottish explorer, published an account of his travels in search of

7104-462: The crossing of the stormy Sea, and all arrived unscathed. When Solomon learned that the Ark had been stolen, he sent a horseman after the thieves and even gave chase himself, but neither could catch them. Solomon returned to Jerusalem and gave orders to the priests to remain silent about the theft and to place a copy of the Ark in the Temple, so that the foreign nations could not say that Israel had lost its fame. According to some sources, Queen Makeda

7215-405: The daughter of a jinni (or peri) and a human. According to E. Ullendorff, the Quran and its commentators have preserved the earliest literary reflection of her complete legend, which among scholars complements the narrative that is derived from a Jewish tradition, this assuming to be the Targum Sheni . However, according to the Encyclopaedia Judaica Targum Sheni is dated to around 700 similarly

7326-455: The early 1620s, the manuscript was not published in Páez's lifetime. However, it provided the foundation for many of the Jesuit accounts of Ethiopia that came after his, including those of Manuel de Almeida and Balthazar Telles. Additional information on the Kebra Nagast was included by the Jesuit priest Manuel de Almeida in his Historia de Etiopía . Almeida was sent out as a missionary to Ethiopia, and had abundant opportunity to learn about

7437-438: The education of the young heir, Ezana , and in the administration of the kingdom during the prince's minority. They remained and (especially Frumentius) used their influence to spread Christianity. First they encouraged the Christian merchants present in the country to practice their faith openly, and they helped them find places "where they could come together for prayer according to the Roman Rite"; later they converted some of

7548-445: The first Abune , a title given to the head of the Ethiopian Church . In about 356, the Emperor Constantius II wrote to King Ezana and his brother Saizana , requesting them to replace Frumentius as bishop with Theophilos the Indian , who supported the Arian position , as did the emperor. Frumentius had been appointed by Athanasius, a leading opponent of Arianism. The king refused the request. Ethiopian traditions credit him with

7659-497: The first Ge'ez translation of the New Testament, and being involved in the development of Ge'ez script from an abjad (consonantal-only) into an abugida (syllabic). The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church celebrate the feast of Abba Salama's consecration on Taḫśaś (the 4th month of Ethiopian or Coptic calendar) 18 and departure Hamle (the 11th month of Ethiopian or Coptic calendar) 26. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria celebrates

7770-435: The first instances of this can be traced in a letter from Prince Kasa (King John IV) to Queen Victoria in 1872. Kasa states, "There is a book called Kebra Nagast which contains the law of the whole of Ethiopia, and the names of the shums (governors), churches and provinces are in this book. I pray you will find out who has got this book and send it to me, for in my country my people will not obey my orders without it." Despite

7881-429: The general consensus is to date Targum Sheni to late 7th- or early 8th century, which post-dates the advent of Islam by almost 200 years. Furthermore, M. J. Berdichevsky explains that this Targum is the earliest narrative articulation of Queen of Sheba in Jewish tradition. The dating of the story of the Queen of Sheba is not well established. A significant number of biblical philologists believe that an early version of

7992-462: The historic importance given to the Kebra Negast , there is still doubt to whether or not the Queen sat on the throne. According to Josephus ( Ant. 8:165–173), the queen of Sheba was the queen of Egypt and Ethiopia, and brought to Israel the first specimens of the balsam , which grew in the Holy Land in the historian's time. Josephus ( Antiquities 2.5‒10) represents Cambyses as conquering

8103-486: The idols of her land (chapter 64). After a question from the 318 bishops of the Council, Domitius continues with a paraphrase of Biblical history (chapters 66–83). Specifically, he focuses on the central element of lineage and royal bloodlines that were prevalent then. He discusses the intermixing of the royal families to preserve their power and ensure their bloodline survives. He does this by using each chapter to describe

8214-485: The indigenous inscriptions make no such difference, and both Yemenite and African Sabaeans are there spelled in exactly the same way. Although there are still no inscriptions found from South Arabia that furnish evidence for the Queen of Sheba herself, South Arabian inscriptions do mention a South Arabian queen ( mlkt , Ancient South Arabian : 𐩣𐩡𐩫𐩩 ). And in the north of Arabia, Assyrian inscriptions repeatedly mention Arab queens. Furthermore, Sabaean tribes knew

8325-489: The inscriptions found, scientists read the name of four South Arabian states: Minea , Hadramawt , Qataban , and Sawa . As it turned out, the residence of the kings of Sheba was the city of Marib (modern Yemen ), which confirms the traditional version of the queen's origin from the south of the Arabian Peninsula . Inscriptions found in southern Arabia do not mention female rulers, but from Assyrian documents of

8436-437: The intention to submit to God. King Solomon then explains that God is the only god that she should worship, not to be included alongside other false gods that she used to worship. Later the Queen of Sheba is requested to enter a palatial hall. Upon first view she mistakes the hall for a lake and raises her skirt to not wet her clothes. King Solomon informs her that is not water rather it is smooth slabs of glass. Recognizing that it

8547-574: The job and consecrated him as bishop, traditionally in the year 328, or according to others, between 340 and 346. Frumentius returned to Ethiopia, where he erected his episcopal see at Axum , then converted and baptized King Ezana , who built many churches and spread Christianity throughout Ethiopia. Frumentius established the first monastery of Ethiopia, called Dabba Selama in Dogu'a Tembien . The people called Frumentius Kesate Birhan (Revealer of Light) and Abba Salama (Father of Peace). He became

8658-465: The journey home, Menelik learns the Ark is with him, and Solomon discovers it is gone from his kingdom. The king attempts to pursue Menelik, but through the Ark's mysterious power, his son, with his entire entourage, is miraculously flown home to Ethiopia before Solomon can leave his kingdom. King Solomon then turns to solace from his wife, the daughter of the Pharaoh , and she seduces him into worshiping

8769-664: The king of Armenia make Gregory the Illuminator a better fit. Queen Makeda learns from Tamrin, a merchant based in her kingdom, about the wisdom of King Solomon, and travels to Jerusalem to visit him. She is enthralled by his display of learning and knowledge, and declares "From this moment I will not worship the sun , but will worship the Creator of the sun, the God of Israel" (chapter 28). The night before she begins her journey home, Solomon tricks her into sleeping with him, giving her

8880-523: The man who destroys the legendary snake-king Arwe ) from whom the Ethiopian dynasty claims descent to the present day. While the Abyssinian story offers much greater detail, it omits any mention of the Queen's hairy legs or any other element that might reflect on her unfavourably. Based on the Gospels of Matthew ( Matthew 12 :42) and Luke ( Luke 11 :31), the "queen of the South" is claimed to be

8991-463: The meals had been spicy, Makeda awoke thirsty at night and went to drink some water, when Solomon appeared, reminding her of her oath. She answered: "Ignore your oath, just let me drink water." That same night, Solomon had a dream about the sun rising over Israel, but being mistreated and despised by the Jews, the sun moved to shine over Ethiopia and Rome. Solomon gave Makeda a ring as a token of faith, and then she left. On her way home, she gave birth to

9102-425: The natives. When the prince came of age, Edesius returned to Tyre , where he stayed and was ordained a priest. Frumentius, eager for the conversion of Ethiopia, accompanied his brother as far as Alexandria , where he requested Athanasius , Patriarch of Alexandria , to send a bishop and some priests as missionaries to Ethiopia. By Athanasius' own account, he believed Frumentius to be the most suitable person for

9213-537: The origin of the legend about the son of the Queen of Sheba in Ethiopia to the fact that apparently in the 6th century BC the Sabaeans, having crossed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait , settled near the Red Sea and occupied part of Ethiopia, 'capturing' the memory of its ruler with her and transplanting it to new soil. One of the provinces of Ethiopia bears the name Shewa (Shawa, modern. Shoa ). The viewpoint according to which

9324-590: The papers concerning this mission, Álvares included an account of the Emperor of Ethiopia, and a description in Portuguese of the habits of the Ethiopians, titled The Prester John of the Indies , which was printed in 1533. The Jesuit missionary Pedro Páez included a detailed translation of the Kebra Nagast through Menelek's return to Aksum with the Ark of the Covenant in his História da Ethiópia . Completed in

9435-567: The pillar from Ethiopia, whence it instantly arrives. In a Coptic poem, queen Yesaba of Cush asks riddles of Solomon. The most extensive version of the legend appears in the Kebra Nagast (Glory of the Kings), the Ethiopian national saga, translated from Arabic in 1322. Here Menelik I is the child of Solomon and Makeda (the Ethiopic name for the queen of Sheba; she is the child of

9546-407: The principal deity of Saba, Almaqah (frequently called "Lord of ʾAwwām"), near Ma'rib in what is now Yemen . I found [there] a woman ruling them, and she has been given of all things, and she has a great throne. I found that she and her people bow to the sun instead of God. Satan has made their deeds seem right to them and has turned them away from the right path, so they cannot find their way. In

9657-457: The queen of Ethiopia. In those times, King Solomon sought merchants from all over the world, in order to buy materials for the building of the Temple . Among them was Tamrin, great merchant of Queen Makeda of Ethiopia. Having returned to Ethiopia, Tamrin told the queen of the wonderful things he had seen in Jerusalem, and of Solomon's wisdom and generosity, whereupon she decided to visit Solomon. She

9768-478: The queen's visit to Solomon is given in the Targum Sheni to Esther (see: Colloquy of the Queen of Sheba ). A hoopoe informed Solomon that the kingdom of Sheba was the only kingdom on earth not subject to him and that its queen was a sun worshiper. He thereupon sent it to Kitor in the land of Sheba with a letter attached to its wing commanding its queen to come to him as a subject. She thereupon sent him all

9879-406: The reign of Caliph Walid I , that a sarcophagus was found with the inscription: 'Here is buried the pious Bilqis, the consort of Solomon...'. Jewish Kabbalistic tradition also considers Tadmor to be the burial place of the Queen, an evil deviless, and the city is considered an ominous haven for demons. There are also parallels between Sheba and another eastern autocrat, the famous Semiramis , also

9990-556: The same gifts that the Magi later gave to Jesus . During the Middle Ages , Christians sometimes identified the queen of Sheba with the sibyl Sabba . The story of Solomon and the queen was popular among Copts , as shown by fragments of a Coptic legend preserved in a Berlin papyrus. The queen, having been subdued by deceit, gives Solomon a pillar on which all earthly science is inscribed. Solomon sends one of his demons to fetch

10101-573: The ships of the sea loaded with precious gifts and 6,000 youths of equal size, all born at the same hour and clothed in purple garments. They carried a letter declaring that she could arrive in Jerusalem within three years although the journey normally took seven years. When the queen arrived and came to Solomon's palace, thinking that the glass floor was a pool of water, she lifted the hem of her dress, uncovering her legs. Solomon informed her of her mistake and reprimanded her for her hairy legs. She asked him three ( Targum Sheni to Esther 1:3) or, according to

10212-431: The sources of the Nile , that information as to the contents of the Kebra Nagast came to be generally known among European scholars and theologians. When Bruce was leaving Gondar, Ras Mikael Sehul , the powerful Inderase (regent) of Emperor Tekle Haymanot II , gave him several of the most valuable Ethiopic manuscripts. Among them was a copy of the Kebra Nagast . When the third edition of Bruce's Travels to Discover

10323-611: The story of the Queen of Sheba existed before the composition of the Deuteronomistic history ( c.  640–609 BCE ) and was revised and placed therein by an anonymous redactor labelled the Deuteronomist (Dtr) by textual scholars. However, many scholars believe that the account from the Third Book of Kings in its present form was compiled during the so-called Second Deuteronomic Revision ( Dtr2 ), produced during

10434-461: The sub-themes of the Queen of Sheba and the Shulammite of the Song of Songs . King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba was not a common subject until the 12th century. In Christian iconography Solomon represented Jesus, and Sheba represented the gentile Church; hence Sheba's meeting with Solomon bearing rich gifts foreshadowed the adoration of the Magi . On the other hand, Sheba enthroned represented

10545-516: The term ḥiddot or 'riddles' ( 1 Kings 10 :1), an Aramaic loanword whose shape points to a sound shift no earlier than the sixth century BC, indicates a late origin for the text. Since there is no mention of the Fall of Babylon in 539 BC, Martin Noth has held that the Book of Kings received a definitive redaction around 550 BC. Sheba was quite well known in the classical world, and its country

10656-468: The text from the Bible were not translated from this hypothetical Arabic vorlage, but were copied from the Ethiopian translation of the Bible , either directly or from memory, and in their use and interpretation shows the influence of patristic sources such as Gregory of Nyssa . Old Testament scholar David Allan Hubbard identified Patristic , Qur'anic , Rabbinical and Apocryphal texts as sources for

10767-506: The then known world, to hear the wisdom of Solomon ( Mt. 12:42; Lk. 11:31). The mystical interpretation of the Song of Songs , which was felt as supplying a literal basis for the speculations of the allegorists, makes its first appearance in Origen , who wrote a voluminous commentary on the Song of Songs. In his commentary, Origen identified the bride of the Song of Songs with the "queen of

10878-618: The title of mqtwyt . Other historians consider parts of the Kebre Negast date to as late as the end of the sixteenth century, when Muslim incursions and contacts with the wider Christian world made the Ethiopian Church concerned with asserting its character and Jewish traditions. Some historians have been suspicious of the statement on the colophon and have suggested that the authors of the original text itself were Ethiopian scribes. Historian Stuart Munro-Hay stated that there

10989-467: The title of mqtwyt ("high official", Sabaean : 𐩣𐩤𐩩𐩥𐩺𐩩 ). Makada or Makueda , the personal name of the queen in Ethiopian legend, might be interpreted as a popular rendering of the title of mqtwyt . This title may be derived from Ancient Egyptian m'kit ( 𓅖𓎡𓇌𓏏𓏛 ) "protectress, housewife ". The queen's visit could have been a trade mission . Early South Arabian trade with Mesopotamia involving wood and spices transported by camels

11100-590: The union of King Solomon and the supposedly Ethiopian Queen of Sheba." It enabled the overthrow of the Zagwe Dynasty . The Kebra Nagast is divided into 117 chapters, and is clearly a composite work; Ullendorff describes its narrative as "a gigantic conflation of legendary cycles". This account draws much of its material from the Hebrew Bible and the author spends most of these pages recounting tales and relating them to other historical events. The document

11211-476: The window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts." Christine de Pizan 's The Book of the City of Ladies continues the convention of calling the Queen of Sheba "Nicaula". The author praises the Queen for secular and religious wisdom and lists her besides Christian and Hebrew prophetesses as first on a list of dignified female pagans. Christopher Marlowe 's Doctor Faustus refers to

11322-560: The worlds." The story of the Queen of Sheba in the Quran shares some similarities with the Bible and other Jewish sources. Some Muslim commentators such as Al-Tabari , Al-Zamakhshari and Al-Baydawi supplement the story. Here they claim that the Queen's name is Bilqīs ( Arabic : بِلْقِيْس ), probably derived from Greek : παλλακίς , romanized :  pallakis or the Hebraised pilegesh (" concubine "). The Quran does not name

11433-488: Was a marvel of construction which she had not seen the likes of before, she declares that in the past she had harmed her own soul but now submits, with King Solomon, to God (27:22–44). She was told, "Enter the palace." But when she saw it, she thought it was a body of water and uncovered her shins [to wade through]. He said, "Indeed, it is a palace [whose floor is] made smooth with glass." She said, "My Lord, indeed I have wronged myself, and I submit with Solomon to God, Lord of

11544-516: Was a native of Phoenicia , born in Tyre , modern day Lebanon. As a boy, he was captured with his brother on a voyage, and they became slaves to the King of Axum . He freed them shortly before his death, and they were invited to educate his young heir. They also began to teach Christianity in the region. Later, Frumentius traveled to Alexandria , Egypt , where he appealed to have a bishop appointed and missionary priests sent south to Axum. Thereafter, he

11655-635: Was appointed bishop and established the Church in Ethiopia, converting many local people, as well as the king. His appointment began a tradition that the Patriarch of Alexandria appoint the bishops of Ethiopia. According to the fourth-century historian Tyrannius Rufinus (x.9), who cites Frumentius' brother Edesius as his authority, as children (ca. 316) Frumentius and Edesius accompanied their uncle Meropius from their birthplace of Tyre (now in Lebanon ) on

11766-682: Was called Arabia Felix . Around the mid-1st millennium BC, there were Sabaeans also in Ethiopia and Eritrea , in the area that later became the realm of Aksum . There are five places in the Bible where the writer distinguishes Sheba ( שׁבא ), i.e. the Yemenite Sabaeans, from Seba ( סבא ), i.e. the African Sabaeans. In Ps. 72:10 they are mentioned together: "the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts". This spelling differentiation, however, may be purely factitious;

11877-412: Was expecting a third son, who would marry the king of Rome's daughter and reign over Rome so that the entire world would be ruled by David's descendants. Then Baina-leḥkem was anointed king by Zadok the high priest, and he took the name David. The first-born nobles who followed him are named, and even today some Ethiopian families claim their ancestry from them. Prior to leaving, the priests' sons had stolen

11988-460: Was part of the dynasty founded by Za Besi Angabo in 1370 BC. The family's intended choice to rule Aksum was Makeda's brother, Prince Nourad, but his early death led to her succession to the throne. She apparently ruled the Ethiopian kingdom for more than 50 years. The 1922 regnal list of Ethiopia claims that Makeda reigned from 1013 to 982 BC, with dates following the Ethiopian calendar . In

12099-596: Was recently excavated by archaeologists, but no trace of the Queen of Sheba has been discovered so far in the many inscriptions found there. Another Sabean temple, the Barran Temple ( Arabic : معبد بران ), is also known as the 'Arash Bilqis ("Throne of Bilqis"), which like the nearby Awwam Temple was also dedicated to the god Almaqah , but the connection between the Barran Temple and Sheba has not been established archaeologically either. Bible stories of

12210-558: Was the fruit of the union between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. In the Kabbalah , the Queen of Sheba was considered one of the queens of the demons and is sometimes identified with Lilith , first in the Targum of Job (1:15), and later in the Zohar and the subsequent literature. The Temple of Awwam or "Mahram Bilqis" ("Sanctuary of the Queen of Sheba") is a Sabaean temple dedicated to

12321-403: Was warmly welcomed, given a palace for dwelling, and received great gifts every day. Solomon and Makeda spoke with great wisdom, and instructed by him, she converted to Judaism. Before she left, there was a great feast in the king's palace. Makeda stayed in the palace overnight, after Solomon had sworn that he would not do her any harm, while she swore in return that she would not steal from him. As

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