The Sons of Isaac(126)
“I’ve heard of this custom. The Markab is like our Ark, only instead of tablets of stone and the ten commandments, it’s one of their fairest maidens that rides in it. They say a whole army will die before they let the enemy capture their Markab. I would say it does take bravery. So she is brave? Is she also beautiful?”
Here Badget drew back and seemed to fidget with the hilt of the short dagger he wore in his belt. “My lord,” he said, “it is not proper to carry tales, and if I hadn’t seen it myself …”
Solomon knew that the old scoundrel was eager to tell any news, but lest he offend he had to play the role of being reluctant. It was this very kind of news Solomon liked best. Smiling, he looked around at his men to see that they also were intrigued. “Come, come Badget,” he said. “Let’s hear the scandal. It must be bad to have an old harpie like you hesitating.”
“My lord, the woman is beautiful beyond anything I have ever seen, but she has one terrible flaw that spoils everything.” Here again he paused as though dreading to tell what he knew.
“Come, come, we’re waiting to hear it,” Solomon urged while his son Rehoboam and the other men insistently joined in.
Badget, being a salesman first and a storyteller second, held up his hands for quiet. “First let me serve you. What do you wish to buy. When you have bought what you want, then I’ll tell you of the flaw.”
Knowing Badget, Solomon quickly declared his choice. “I’ll take this goblet of horn. I’m sure there’ll never be another quite like it.”
Once the king had made his choice and declared that was all he wanted, the others quickly picked out items, and within the hour, Badget was waving to his men to pack up all that was left.
“Now, the Hopoe will tell us of the flaw in the beautiful new queen of Sheba.” Solomon was absentmindedly twirling the glowing horn in his right hand and holding the monkey with his left so he couldn’t reach it. Badget came and knelt before the king. “It’s late, my lord, my camels are waiting at the Fountain Gate.”
“Then tell it quickly.” There was a note of impatience in the king’s voice, and Badget was not one to trifle with such a tone.
“If I had not seen it with my own eyes, my lord …”
“Yes, yes, we have heard that before. What did you see, Badget?”
“My lord, I am just a poor merchant. I was brought before the queen because they said I had slipped by the guards without paying the usual tribute …”
“We don’t need to hear all the details of how you saw the queen. I’m sure you would be one to slip by without paying tribute if you could. What is the flaw?”
“My lord, she was sitting on a throne of alabaster. Her hair fell down beneath her crown like the waterfall at Ein Geddi and her hands were like small jeweled fans, but as I raised myself from kneeling, her gown lifted slightly and I saw her feet. My lord, they were hooves like a donkey’s feet. The queen has the feet of a donkey.”
A loud gasp of astonishment went round the room, and in the confusion, Badget flung the last pack over his shoulder and disappeared.
The palace of Bilqis, the queen of Sheba, was nestled in among Tolok trees and palms. It rose out of this greenness with its stone walls and pillars whitewashed to a startling brilliance. The broad steps were of alabaster, as were its floors and rounded openings. Some called it the Alabaster Palace.
Formal gardens filled every space within the walls that surrounded the palace. These gardens were kept constantly green by the steady flowing of water through the irrigation ditches. The same water poured out of ornate fountains and spilled over into pools cut in the hard rock. Peacocks furled their plumes as they strutted picturesquely under the trees, and tigers and panthers glowered from cages fastened into the walls.
Inside the palace one was first impressed by the soft light pouring through the fretted openings of alabaster. It rested at various times of the day on different portions of the dusty old tapestries, gleamed from gold javelins and shields, and spilled out over worn rectangles of alabaster that formed the floors. This was made even more striking by the general darkness of the whole interior. The palace seemed to be filled with huge, unwieldy storage chests, screens, and oversized, rusted brass incense burners.
Even the throne was enormous and ugly. It was raised off the floor by a series of tiers covered in black ebony. Tradition said that it had been carved out of alabaster at some far distant time by workmen who first worshiped the bull-shaped moon god. A bull’s head with red ruby eyes glared from its back while each armrest was the bull’s foreleg and ended in crudely carved hooves.