Makeda, Queen of Sheba
 |
Posted by Jim Down in History section |
|
Legends of the Queen of Sheba are common throughout Arabia, Persia, Ethiopia and Israel. In Arabian tradition, Balkis ruled with the heart of a woman but the head and hands of a man. Islamic stories portray Solomon as marrying the Queen. In contrast to the Bible, they portray her abandoning her gods and converting to the God of the Israelites.
Arabian folklore and the Qu’ran present fanciful stories of the Queen of Sheba. Many of these tales involve magic carpets, talking birds, and teleportation - the miraculous transfer of Balkis’ throne in Sheba to Solomon’s palace. One notable tale involves the hoopoe bird, who tells Solomon about Balkis and delivers to her a demand from him - unless she visits him, he will annihilate her people. In one story, her foot which is shaped like an ass’s foot is transformed into a human foot when she steps on Solomon’s glass floor; in another story, Solomon invents a depilatory in order to remove goathair from her legs.
Several Jewish legends which developed in post-Biblical times also present dubious accounts of the Queen and Solomon. Although many of her challenges to Solomon are believable, others given in the Targum Sheni, the Midrash Mishle and the Midrash Hachefez are similar to Islamic tales, and likewise unconvincing.
More realistic portraits of the Queen of Sheba appear in the Bible and the Kebra Negast. According to Ethiopian legend, she was born in 1020 B.C. in Ophir, and educated in Ethiopia. Her mother was Queen Ismenie; her father, chief minister to Za Sebado, succeeded him as King. One story describes that as a child Sheba (called Makeda) was to be sacrificed to a serpent god, but was rescued by the stranger ‘Angaboo.
Later, her pet jackal bit her badly on one foot and leg, leaving lasting scars and deformity. When her father died in 1005 B.C., Sheba became Queen at the age of fifteen. Contradictory legends refer to her as ruling for forty years, and reigning as a virgin queen for six years. In most accounts, she never married.
Sheba was known to be beautiful (despite her ankle and leg), intelligent, understanding, resourceful, and adventurous. A gracious queen, she had a melodious voice and was an eloquent speaker. Excelling in public relations and international diplomacy, she was a also competent ruler.
The historian Josephus said of her, “She was inquisitive into philosophy and on that and on other accounts also was to be admired.”
|
