The Sons of Isaac(124)

From the Arab historian Tabari, we are told that she was thought by Solomon to have the feet of a donkey, that she married Solomon and was converted to his faith. It is from Arab legends that we also are told of the white Arabian horse named Zad el-Rukab that the queen brought as a gift to Solomon.

The Ethiopian legends found in the Kebra Negast give us more information. Tamrin is mentioned as a trader-emissary for the queen, and the guide for her caravan, which boasted seven hundred ninety-seven camels plus countless asses and mules all ladened with gifts. We are given the added bit of information that she stayed six months in Jerusalem.

It is from the Ethiopian legends that we learn how Solomon put the queen’s bed in his room, ordered her food heavily salted, so he could claim her when she drank his water. We are also told in these legends that he gave the queen a ring for the son that would be born from their union   and about the son’s journey back to Jerusalem on a visit to his father.

We are told just where the son was born in Ethiopia and how the city of Axum on the coast was built as the queen’s new capitol.

The references to the Egyptian princess and the worship of the cat god Bastet are based on Egyptian history. Shoshenk, the pharaoh during Solomon’s reign was the first king of the 22nd dynasty. He belonged to a Libyan family. Their capitol was at Bubastis, in the Delta, and the cat god, Bastet, was the object of their worship. They had temples built to this god and all cats were sacred. The princess from Egypt who married Solomon would have been from this family and this part of Egypt.

The information dealing with Bilqis’s long journey from Marib in Yemen to Jerusalem was gleaned from various sources plus my own travels in the Sinai. I have ridden through the narrow Siq leading into the fortress of Petra and have climbed the steps to the High altar. This altar, minus the golden platform, looks just as it must have looked centuries ago. The steps are still there winding up the face of the cliff and ending at the pinnacle of rock from which the altar was fashioned. Sheep and bullocks were the usual offerings, but in times of extreme crisis or when favors were requested of the gods, children or captives taken in battle were sacrificed.

Living in Yemen and visiting Ethiopia often, I was able to explore the new discoveries made by archaeologists at both Marib in Yemen and Axum in Ethiopia. I have seen the pillars of Bilqis’s temple to the moon god Ilumquh, which now lies half buried in drifting sand. I have studied the layout of her city with its lovely palace and have walked on the impressive ruins of her dam. I have run my hand over the remains of an alabaster bull’s head that to her would have been the earthly embodiment of the moon god she worshiped.

Most exciting of all, I came upon the remains of an alabaster throne in the Sanaa museum. There were only the armrests and the two front legs. Upon examining it closely, I discovered the legs terminated in the very realistic hooves of a bull. For me, the legend of the queen having the feet of a donkey suddenly became understandable. With long robes covering her feet, it is entirely possible that visitors might see only the hooves and imagined them to be her feet.

Bilqis began to take shape as I pieced together the bits of legend, studied the culture, and retraced her steps wherever possible. She was no longer a remote personage in a history book but a vital, intriguing woman who begged to have her story told.





Bilqis


It was the annual dry season and the first of the caravans had arrived in Jerusalem from the south. On hearing the news, Solomon with his son and a few of his friends retired to the more casual, tentlike quarters built on the roof of his new palace. This was an ideal place to view the varied assortment of bobbles and oddities with some real treasures brought from distant lands.

The traders would go on to Hazor and then Damascus, where they sold most of their wares, but in Jerusalem they had always found Solomon to be one of their best customers. He knew quality and was not reluctant to pay high prices for an item he happened to like. However, now that his ships had made a successful trip down the Red Sea to Punt, the traders were afraid he would no longer buy from them.

Old Badget, sometimes called “Hopoe” in jest, was the leader of this particular caravan. He was a Jew from Jericho who was known for his cunning and astute bargaining ability; more than that he seemed to have a penchant for finding real treasures.

When the king was finally seated on the golden pedestal with his newly acquired monkey perched on the armrest, Badget nodded to his men. “You see,” Badget said, craftily keeping his eye on the king and waving his hand over the assortment that began to be piled on the plush red carpet, “I have brought you the best. You and your men shall have first choice.”