The Queen of Sheba make only a abbreviated show in the Hebrew Bible , but her legendary sojourn to the court ofKing Solomonsparked centuries of supposition about the truthful identity of this powerful , wise and beautiful cleaning woman to whom even the mighty Solomon gave " all she want and asked for . "
Some historians arrogate that the Queen of Sheba was in reality the powerful Egyptian Pharaoh Hatshepsut , a female milkweed butterfly whose riches and territorial dominion dominate Nefertiti andCleopatra . Other scholars wonder if the Queen of Shebaexisted at all , since no archaeological evidence has been found for her , so far . Perhaps , they say , she was likeLilith , a mythological figure symbolizing a strong female terror to manly authority .
When Deborah Coulter - Harris was get up in Boston , one of her mother ’s pet retorts was , " Who do you think you are , the Queen of Sheba ? " Now anEnglish professorat the University of Toledo , Coulter - Harris spent three year researching and write a book about the becharm biblical figure called " The Queen of Sheba : Legend , Literature and Lore . "
We spoke to Coulter - Harris about the intriguing connexion between Sheba and Hatshepsut , and why she thinks that Sheba ’s storied meeting with Solomon , while for sure fictionalized , could be based on a substantial - lifespan meeting of two competing ancient mogul .
The Queen of Sheba in the Bible
In the Hebrew Bible ( sleep together to Christians as the Old Testament ) , the Queen of Sheba makes her only appearance in the Holy Scripture of1 Kings(the write up is repeated almost word of honor for Book in2 Chronicles ) .
According to the story , the queen heard about the " fame of Solomon , " particularly his wisdom , and came to try him with a serial of " severe doubt . " From this we can assume that the queen mole rat herself must have been highly intelligent in improver to incredibly productive . We ’re told that she arrived in Jerusalem with a caravan of camel carrying " orotund quantities of gold , " valued stones and spices .
The Queen of Sheba doubt the rumors she ’d heard about Solomon ’s enormousness , but regain that they did n’t narrate half the story . She was so " overwhelmed , " the Bible says , by the majesty of Solomon ’s motor hotel and Temple complex , that she gifted the Israelite king 120 gift of gold ( deserving anestimated$3.6 million today ) and more spicery than Solomon had ever seen .
" She ’s not even given a name in the Hebrew Bible account , " says Coulter - Harris . " She convey Solomon 5 tons [ 4.5 metric tons ] of gold and then she go back ' to her own country , ' and that ’s it . "
The only other biblical mention to the Queen of Sheba were in the New Testament books ofMatthewandLuke , in which Jesus enunciate that " the Queen of the South " ( whom his listeners would have recognise as the Queen of Sheba ) would label the Pharisees and lawyers who asked for a sign that he was the promised messiah , " for she come from the end of the ground to listen to Solomon ’s wisdom , and now something greater than Solomon is here . "
The name " Queen of the South " aligns with one popular possibility that the scriptural kingdom of Sheba ( orSaba ) was settle in the southerly Arabian Peninsula near modern - day Yemen . But not everyone buys the claim that the Queen of Sheba came from Yemen , Coulter - Harris included .
Beyond the Bible: The Queen of Sheba Legend Grows
Over the centuries , the Bible ’s barebones account of the meeting between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba has been fleshed out by extra spiritual texts and folk tale .
In the Quran , the foundational scripture of Islam , the Queen of Sheba is given a name , Bilqis , and it ’s Solomon who first hears aboutherfame . In the Quranic account , Solomon ( called Sulaiman ) is so sinewy that he can talk to animals and commands supernatural creatures called jinns . A hoopoo skirt tells Solomon that the Kingdom of Sheba ( " Saba " ) is predominate by a woman appoint Bilqis who " has been give everything and … possess a splendid throne . "
When Solomon get wind that the female monarch and her people worship the sun and other idols , he has the hoopoe razzing deliver a letter asking Bilqis to change over to Islam . The queen ’s advisor recite her to wax up against Solomon , but instead she sends him expensive gifts , which the wealthy king reject and then threatens to invade Sheba himself .
humble , the Queen of Sheba journeys to visit Solomon . Before she stupefy there , Solomon has his jinns and sorcerer transport the fagot ’s throne to Jerusalem . When the queen come and sees her toilet , she ’s convinced that Solomon is a prophet and convert to Islam . She also mistakes the shiny throne room floor for piss and ignominiously lifts up her skirts to annul getting wet , exposing her hairy legs .
In the ninth century C.E. , the story of Sheba and Solomon was picked up again by Jewish rabbis in elaborate scriptural commentary known as " midrash " and " aggadah . " In these late story , ground on centuries of Jewish folklore , we find out that the Queen of Sheba represent Solomon with aseries of riddlesabout women and sex , topics that a distinctive humans would n’t know much about . But when Solomon answered correctly , the female monarch was so impressed that she convert to Judaism .
But the most complete and coloured treatment of the Queen of Sheba issue forth from the 14th - century Ethiopian epic call the " Kebra Nagast . " In this tale , the queen is named Makare and she ’s the ruler ofEthiopia . After visiting Solomon and exchange to Judaism , the queen is tricked into kip with Solomon and she gives giving birth to their son , Menelik .
When Menelik grows up , he goes back to Jerusalem to meet his famous father . By a twist of lot , Menelik terminate up return home to Ethiopia with the Ark of the Covenant , which was steal by Jewish nobles from the Temple and stashed in Menelik ’s caravan without his noesis . In a dream , Solomon is told about the larceny , but God decrees that the Ark should remain in Ethiopia , wheresome believe it still occupy .
Other legend and folktales picture the Queen of Sheba as only one-half human , either a demigod or a fiend , says Coulter - Harris . InClassical Arabic folklore , Bilqis was the girl of a human king and a jinn mother , giving her supernatural powers , and in Eritrean legends , her leg were more than just haired .
" According to the Eritrean account , seven ideal were killing a dragon and dragon blood return on one of the queen ’s foot , transforming it into a Equus asinus ’s foot , " says Coulter - Harris . " In a lot of these story , the Queen of Sheba has some variety of deformity of the leg or the feet . "
Was Hatshepsut the Real Queen of Sheba?
In her book , Coulter - Harris summons a number of tantalizing clues that connect the biblical Queen of Sheba to the material - life story queen Hatshepsut , the mighty distaff pharaoh of Ancient Egypt .
govern during the 18th Dynasty ( 15th century B.C.E. ) , Hatshepsut was the widow fag of Thutmose II . After Thutmose II ’s death , Hatshepsut was mean to rule as a irregular regent while her stepson Thutmose III fall of age to be pharaoh . Butwhether it was personal ambitiousness or political necessity , she soon proclaim herself pharaoh .
To cement her authority , Hatshepsut erect monuments depicting herself as a man with the elongated byssus and ceremonial attire of a male Pharaoh of Egypt . Hatshepsut renamed herself Ma’at kare , which translate as accuracy , order and Justice Department . Indeed , her rule equate with a metre of great wealth and territorial subjection .
There are clew that potentially align Hatshepsut with the Queen of Sheba , explains Coulter - Harris . The first is lingual . In the Ethiopian custom , the Queen of Sheba ’s name has always been Makare . When she became pharaoh , Hatshepsut transfer her name to Ma’at kare , which is pronounced almost exactly like Makare .
Then there ’s Josephus , the first - C C.E. Roman - Jewish historian , who describe Hatshepsut as the " world-beater of Egypt and Ethiopia , " another piece of evidence that connects the Pharaoh Ma’at kare of Egypt with the Makare of Ethiopian - Judaic legend .
As for the hairy or malformed legs , that might be a acknowledgment to Hatshepsut ’s actual physical appearance . She ’s always impersonate in homo ’s wearable , which would have been shocking enough to ancient eye , butthere are sourcesthat also say her mummy showed signs of bald , facial hair and a hide disease , which might excuse the mystical extension to deformity in folklore .
The Problem With the Hatshepsut Hypothesis
Coulter - Harris is the first to admit that there ’s a major problem with identify Hatshepsut at the Queen of Sheba . Most historians come out Hatshepsut squarely in the New Kingdom stop , living from approximately 1500 B.C.E to 1450 B.C.E. Solomon , meanwhile , predominate from 970 to 931 B.C.E.
That ’s a 500 - year gap , but historian like Immanuel Velikovsky have purport that the conventional timeline of Egypt and Ancient Israelare off by five one C , placing Hatshepsut ’s reign contemporary with Solomon .
If that ’s the case , says Coulter - Harris , then Hatshepsut and Solomon would have been chouse for power and trade wind in the realm , and Hatshepsut likely had the upper bridge player . After all , no archeological grounds remains of Solomon ’s supposedly monolithic kingdom , while Hatshepsut ’s temple still stand .
" If the Queen of Sheba was really Hatshepsut , then her renown probably outshone Solomon , " says Coulter - Harris . " The authors of the Hebrew Bible did n’t want to take away from the glory that was Solomon ’s empire , so they portrayed Hatshepsut as ' wowed ' by Solomon ’s wealth . Meanwhile , he may have just been an insignificant king of a small , backwater state whose wealth was magnified . "
Even if Hatshepsut did predate Solomon ’s sovereignty by 500 years , the biblical account could still be a denotation to the great distaff pharaoh whose riches and fame were seared in the memory of Africa and the Middle East . How better to show the God - given authorization of a virile king than to show him outwit a legendary pagan queen , succeed by her rebirth to monotheism ?
" She could have just been emblematical or used as propaganda to show how muscular King Solomon was , but I do n’t purchase that , " says Coulter - Harris . " I think Hatshepsut and Solomon were contemporaries and I think she visited Jerusalem for political and economic reasons . "
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