Queen of
People of Saba
Saba were a well-known commercial people of southern Arabia
whose capital city of Ma'rib lay about 55 miles to the north-east of San'a, the
present capital of Yaman. They rose to
power after the decline of the Miaean kingdom in about 1100 B.C. and flourished
for a thousand years in Arabia. Then in
115 B.C. they were replaced by the Himyarites, other well-known people of
southern Arabia, who ruled Yaman and Hadramaut in Arabia and Habasha in Africa. The Sabaeans controlled the whole trade that
passed between eastern Africa, India the Far East and Arabia itself, on the one
hand, and Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome on the other. That is why they were famous for their wealth
in the ancient times; so much so that according to the Greek historians they
were the richest people of the world.
Besides trade and commerce, another great reason of their prosperity was
that they had built dams here and there in their country to store rainwater for
irrigation purposes, which had turned their whole land into a veritable garden. The Greek historians have made mention of the
unusual greenery of their country; and the Quran also refers to it in Surah Saba.
Hud-hud Informs about Queen of Sheba:
The armies of Prophet Solomon included the troops of the
men, jinns, and birds. It is just
possible that the Prophet Solomon had employed birds for communicating
messages, hunting and performing other such services. He expressed his gratitude to Allah for His
that bounty that he had been taught the speech of the birds. During review of
the birds, Prophet Solomon found the hud-hud missing. He said that he would punish him severely, or
even slaughter him, unless he presented a reasonable excuse. Prophet Solomon was aware of a people who
ruled the southern shores (Yaman) of the Red Sea who also controlled an
important part of the international trade.
Hud-hud said the knowledge of the things he had seen with
his eyes in the central city of the Sabaeans had not yet reached him. The people of
Hud-hud takes the letter to Sheba
The Prophet Solomon sent the same hud-hud with a
letter to the queen of Sheba and told him to cast that before her. When the hud-hud arrived with the
Prophet Solomon's letter, the queen of Sheba was going for the worship of the
sun-god, and it threw the letter on the way before the queen.
Queen described the letter to her courtiers. The letter was important for several reasons:
(1) it has reached herin an unusual way.
Instead of an envoy it had been brought and dropped at her by a
bird. (2) It was from Solomon, the great
ruler of
She regarded their presence necessary when she would take a
decision in important matters, and also that whatever decision she take they
should be there to testify that it was right and correct. Though the system of government among
Queen Sheba Send Presents
for Prophet Solomon
Queen sent gifts to Prophet Solomon. He said that he had no desire for their wealth; he only desired that they should
believe, or at least submit to a righteous system. If they agreed to neither of these
alternatives, it was not possible for him to accept the bribes of wealth and
leave them free in the matter of a polytheistic and wicked system of life. What his Lord has given him is enough for him
to cherish any desire for theirr wealth.
He asked those messengers to take
those gifts back to the people who have sent them. They should come before him as Muslims, or
they will bring forces against them.
Prophet Solomon Returns the Gift
The envoys returned to the queen with the gift and made a
report of what they had seen and heard; the queen decided on the basis of what
she heard about the Prophet Solomon to make a visit to Jerusalem to see him
personally; she left Saba for Palestine accompanied by her royal entourage and
sent a message to Solomon 's court that she herself was coming to personally
hear the invitation from the king himself and to have a direct talk with
him. The queen had reached near Jerusalem
and was going to appear before Solomon in a day or two.
Prophet Solomon asks Sheba's Throne to be Fetched:
Prophet Solomon wanted to show a miracle also to the queen
and her courtiers besides preaching his message so that she might know what extraordinary
powers Allah, Lord of the worlds, had granted to His Prophet so that she might
be convinced that Solomon was surely a Prophet of Allah. Prophet Solomon wanted the queen's own throne
to be brought from Yaman to Jerusalem and that too before the queen's arrival.
From this it becomes obvious whether the jinns under the
Prophet Solomon were from among the hidden creation commonly known as
jinns. Obviously, the sitting of the
Prophet Solomon's court would be at the most be of three to four hours, and the
distance of Ma'rib, capital of Saba, from Jerusalem was, even as the crow
flies, not less than 1500 miles. To
fetch a splendid throne of a queen from such a distant place in such a short
time could not be possible for a man, even if he be a very strong and robust
person. This task cannot be performed by
a jet plane of today. The throne was not
lying in a jungle from where it had just to be fetched. It lay in a queen's palace, which must have
been kept in a secure place. If a man
had gone to fetch it, he should have been accompanied by a commando force so
that he could overwhelm the guards and snatch away the throne. How could all this be accomplished before the
rising of the court? This thing can be
conceived only in connection with a real jinn!
That is, "You can trust me in that I will not carry it
away, nor steal any valuable thing from it."
Nothing is known with certainty as to who this person was,
what special knowledge he had and what Book is referred to here, whose
knowledge he had. No explanation of
these things has been given either in the Quran or in any authentic
Hadith. In any case the person was not
from among the jinns, and possibly he was a man. He possessed some extraordinary knowledge,
which had been derived from some Divine Book.
The jinn had claimed to fetch the throne within a few hours by means of
his physical strength; this man fetched it in a moment by the power of his
knowledge.
The word of the Quran are very clear in this regard. This person's claim did not remain a claim
like the jinns's, but, in fact, as soon as he made the claim the throne was
seen placed before the Prophet Solomon the next moment. This event was extraordinary. He feared that
the prompt arrangement of a throne for the honorable gust might cause him to
become ungrateful to Allah instead of being grateful. As far the question as to how a royal throne
was fetched over a distance of 1500 miles in the twinkling of an eye, it can be
briefly answered thus: "The concepts of time and space, and matter and
movement, that we have formed on the basis of our experiments and observations,
are only applicable to us. These
concepts are not correct in respect to God, nor is He bound by these. The God Who by His one command brought this
huge universe into being, had the power to have moved the throne of the queen
of Sheba at a speed greater than the speed of light.
That is, He does not stand in need of somebody's
gratefulness. His Godhead is neither enhanced by an iota by somebody's
gratefulness nor diminished by that amount by somebody's ingratitude of
thankfulness. He is a Sovereign in His
own right. His Sovereignty is not
dependent on His creation's acknowledgement or rejection.
As how the queen reached Jerusalem and how she was received,
has been omitted. The story is resumed
from the time when she had arrived at the palace to see Prophet Solomon.
This is a meaningful sentence, which means: (1)
"Whether she understands or not that her own throne which has been fetched
in no time from her capital to a distant place like Jerusalem;" and also
(2) "whether she is guided aright after seeing this wonderful miracle,
persists in her error." Here
Prophet Solomon clearly says that he had done this in order to help the queen
see Guidance.
Queen Sheba Meets Prophet Solomon:
Solomon ordered the throne to be fetched before him, and
when it had been fetched, ordered his servants to set it before the queen
casually, and then when she arrived, she was asked whether her throne was like
that, and she answered, that was just the same.
Even before they saw that miracle they had been convinced by what they
had heard of Solomon (pbuh) that he was a Prophet of Allah, and not merely a
ruler of a kingdom. She was not obdurate
and stubborn. She had been an unbeliever
till then mainly because she came of an unbelieving people. As she had accustomed to bowing down before a
false deity since her childhood, it had become a hindrance for her to the right
way. As soon as she came in contact with
the Prophet Solomon, she discerned the right way and the hindrance was removed
forthwith.
Queen of Sheba becomes Muslim
There were many eye-openers for her. The first thing was Solomon's letter that had
begun with the name of the All-Compassionate, the All-Merciful Allah, a very
different from the common custom prevalent among the customs. The second was his rejection of her gifts,
which made the queen understand that he was different kind of a king. The third was the report made by the king's
envoys from which she came to know about Solomon's pious life, his wisdom and
his message of the Truth. These things
had induced her to travel to Jerusalem herself to personally meet the Prophet
Solomon, and to this she had referred when she said, "We had already known
this and we had become Muslims, " The
fourth thing was the removal of her throne from Ma'rib to Jerusalem in
no time, from which the queen realized that he had Allah's power at his
back. Now this was the last thing that
removed every doubt from her mind regarding the unique and great personality of
the Prophet Solomon. When she saw that
in spite of possessing every means of comfort and ease and a grand palace for a
dwelling, he was so free from every conceit, so God-fearing and righteous and
so grateful to God that he bowed before Him for every small favor and his life
so different from the life of those who were enamored of the world, she
exclaimed, "O my Lord! I have been unjust to myself, now I submit myself,
with Solomon, to Allah, Lord of the worlds."
(On another occasion) Solomon reviewed his birdsEN27:27 and said, ”How is it that I do not see the hoopoe? Has he
disappeared somewhere? 27:20
EN27:27 That is, the birds whose troops, as mentioned above, were
included in the armies of Prophet Solomon like the troops of the men and
jinns. It is just possible that the
Prophet Solomon had employed them for communicating messages, hunting and
performing other such services.
I will punish him
severely, or even slaughter him, unless he presents before me a reasonable excuse.”EN27:28 27:21
EN27:28 Some people of the modern time say that the hud-hud
(hoopoe) is the name of a man who was an officer in the army of Solomon. We do not think so. First of all, the Prophet Solomon expresses
his gratitude to Allah for His this bounty: "We have been taught the
speech of the birds." In this
sentence, firstly, the words jinn, ins (men), and tairī
have been used as names for three well known and distinct species denoted by
these words in Arabic. Then they have
been used absolutely and there is nothing in the context that may point to any
of them being used metaphorically, or as a simile, because of which one may
take them in another meaning than their well-known lexical meaning. Then the word ins has occurred between
the words jinn and tair, which does not allow taking it in the
meaning that the jinn and tair were, in fact, two groups included
in the species of ins (men). The,
Quran says that the Prophet Solomon said this when during his review of the
birds he found the hud-hud missing.
Then the Prophet says, "I will punish him severely, or even
slaughter him, unless he presents me a reasonable excuse." A man is killed, or hanged, or sentenced to
death, but never slaughtered. Some
hard-hearted person may even slaughter another person out of vengeance, but it
cannot be expected of a Prophet that he would sentence a soldier of his army to
be slaughtered only for the offence of desertion, and Allah would mention this
heinous act of the Prophet without a word of disapproval.
A little further on we shall see that the Prophet Solomon
sends the same hud-hud with a letter to the queen of Sheba and tells him
"to cast it before her".
Obviously, such an instruction can be given to a bird but not at all to
a man when he is sent as an envoy or messenger.
Only a foolish person will believe that a king would send his envoy with
a letter to the queen and of another country and tell him to cast or throw it
before her. Should we suppose that the
Prophet Solomon was not aware of the preliminary social etiquette which even
common people like us also observe when we send our servant to a neighbor? Will a gentleman tell his servant to carry
his letter to the other gentleman and throw it before him?
All of these things show that the word hud-hud here
has been used in its lexical meaning, showing that he was not a man but a
bird. Now, if a person is not prepared
to believe that a hud-hud can speak those things that he have been
ascribed to it in the Quran, he should frankly say that he does not believe in
this narrative of the Quran.
The bird did not take
long when it came and said, “I have obtained knowledge of things which
you have no knowledge. I have brought
sure information about Saba.”EN27:29 27:22
EN27:29 Saba were a well-known commercial
people of southern Arabia whose capital city of Ma'rib lay about 55 miles to
the north-east of San'a, the present capital of Yaman. They rose to power after the decline of the
Miaean kingdom in about 1100 B.C. and flourished for a thousand years in
Arabia. Then in 115 B.C. they were
replaced by the Himyarites, other well-known people of southern Arabia, who
ruled Yaman and Hadramaut I Arabia and Habasha in Africa. The Sabaeans controlled the whole trade that
passed between eastern Africa, India the Far East and Arabia itself, on the one
hand, and Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome on the other. That is why they were famous for their wealth
in the ancient times; so much so that according to the Greek historians they
were the richest people of the world.
Besides trade and commerce, another great reason of their prosperity was
that they had built dams here and there in their country to store rainwater for
irrigation purposes, which had turned their whole land into a veritable
garden. The Greek historians have made
mention of the unusual greenery of their country; and the Quran also refers to
it in Surah Saba: 15.
The statement of the hud-hud, "I have obtained
knowledge of things which you have no knowledge", does not imply that the
Prophet Solomon was wholly unaware of Saba'.
Obviously, the ruler of Syria and Palestine whose kingdom extended to
the northern shores of the Red Sea (Gulf of 'Aqabah), could not be unaware of a
people who ruled the southern shores (Yaman) of the same Red Sea, and who also
controlled an important part of the international trade. What the hud-hud means to say is this:
"The knowledge of the things I have seen with my eyes in the central city
of the Sabaeans, has not yet reached you."
There I have seen a
woman ruling over her people; she has been given all sorts of provisions, and
she has a splendid throne. 27:23.
I saw that she and her people prostrate
themselves before the sun, instead of Allah,”EN27:30
– SatanEN27:31
made their deeds seem fair to them,EN27:32 and
hindered them from the highway; therefore, they do not find the right path 27:24
EN27:30 This shows that the people of
EN27:31 The style shows that the sentences
from here to the end of the paragraph are not a part of the hud-hud's
speech but its speech ended with: "they prostrate themselves before the
sun", and these words are an addition by Allah to its speech. This opinion is supported by the sentence:
"He knows all that you conceal and reveal." These words give the impression that the speaker
and the addressees here are not the hud-hud and the Prophet Solomon and
his courtiers respectively, but the Speaker is Allah and the addressees the mushriks
of Makkah, for whose admonition this story has been related.
EN27:32 That is, “Satan has made them
believe that earning the worldly wealth and making their lives more and more grand
and pompous is the only real and fit use of their mental and intellectual and
physical powers. Apart from these, they
need not think seriously on anything else: they not bother themselves to see
whether there was any factual reality behinds the apparent life of the world or
not, and whether the basis of their religion, morality, culture and system of
life accorded with that Reality or went utterly against it. Satan satisfied them with that when they were
making adequate progress in respect of wealth and power and worldly grandeur,
they had no need to see whether their beliefs and philosophies and theories
were correct or not, for the only proof of their being correct was that they
were earning wealth and enjoying life to their hearts’ content.”
That they may
prostrate themselves before that God Who brings to light the hidden things of
the heavens and the earthEN27:33 and
knows all that you conceal and reveal.EN27:34
27:25
Allah none but He is worthy of worship:
He is the Owner of the glorious Throne.EN27:35
27:26
EN27:33 That is, He is bringing
continuously into existence those things which before their birth were hidden
here and there: He is bringing out
continuously countless kinds of vegetation and minerals from the bowels of the
earth: He is manifesting from upper
space such things as could not even be conceived by human mind before their
manifestation.
EN27:34 That is, His knowledge embraces
everything; the open and hidden are alike for Him; He is aware of everything.
By citing these two attributes of Allah the object is to
impress that if they had not been deluded by Satan, they could have seen the right
way clearly: they could have perceived that the hot burning sphere of the sun
which has no sense of its own existence, did not deserve to be worshipped but
worship was due to Him alone Who is the All-Knowing and the All-Wise Being, and
Whose power is bringing into existence new and ever new phenomena every moment.
EN27:35 This is one of those verses of the
Quran, whose recital makes it obligatory for one to perform a Sajdah (prostration), and there is a
consensus on this of the Muslim jurists.
The object of performing a Sajdah
here is that a believer should set himself apart from the sun-worshippers and
should declare by his action that he does not regard the sun but Allah Almighty
alone as his Deity and Lord.
Solomon said,
“We shall now see whether what you say is true, or that you are a liar.
27:27 Take this letter of mine and cast it before
them; then get aside and see what reaction they show.”EN27:36 27:28
EN27:36 Here ends the role of the hud-hud (hoopoe). The rationalists deny its being a bird. Now, when Allah, Who has is the Creator of
these animals, tells us that He had taught the speech of the birds to one of
His Prophets and blessed him with the ability to speak to them, and the
Prophet’s taming and training had so enabled a hud-hud that it could make certain observations in the foreign lands
and could report them to the Prophet, we should, in fact be prepared to revise
our little knowledge about the animals in the light of Allah’s statement.
The queen said,
“O chiefs: a very important letter has been cast before me. 27:29 It is from Solomon, and it begins with the
name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.” 27:30 It says, “Do not adopt a rebellious
attitude against me and present yourselves as Muslims before me’.”EN27:37 27:31
EN27:37 That is, “The letter is
important for several reasons: (1) it has reached me in an unusual way. Instead of an envoy it has been brought and
dropped at me by a bird. (2) It is from
Solomon, the great ruler of
“Present yourselves as Muslims” can be have two
meanings: (1) “Present yourselves in submission”; and (2)
“present yourselves as Muslims (after embracing Islam).” The first meaning is in accordance with the
Prophet Solomon’s position as a ruler, and the second with his position
as a Prophet. Probably this
comprehensive word was used in order to convey both the meanings through the
letter. The same sort of invitation has
always been extended by Islam to independent nations and governments that they
should either accept Islam and become equal partners in the Islamic system of
life, or surrender political independence and submit to the system of Islam and
pay jizyah.
(Having read out the
letter) the queen said, “O chiefs: counsel me in this matter; I do not
take a decision in any matter without (consulting) you.”EN27:38 27:32
EN27:38 The words used in the Text are:
“hatta tash-hu-dun (unless you
are present, or unless you bear witness).
That is: “I regard your presence necessary when I take a decision
in important matters, and also that whatever decision I take you should be
there to testify that it is right and correct.” This shows that though the system of
government among
They replied,
“We are a powerful people, and good fighters. The decision, however, rests with you. You may yourself consider as to what command
you should give.” 27:33 The queen said, “When the kings enter
a land, they ruin it and debase its honorable people;EN27:39 they do just the same.EN27:40 27:34
EN27:39 In this one sentence a thorough
criticism has been made of imperialism. The
king's invasion of the other countries and the victorious nations' violence
against the oppressed nations has never been for the sake of reform and
goodwill. The object has been to control
and exploit the means and resources of sustenance granted to the other nation
by God, and make it so helpless that it should never be able to rise in
resistance and demand its share. For
this purpose they block up all its means of prosperity, power and honor, crush
down all self-respecting elements, instill in its members attitudes of slavery,
flattery, treachery and spying against one another, imitation of the conqueror
and the respect of his civilization, contempt of their own civilization and
other such mean qualities of character.
Thus, gradually they bring them down to such a low level of character
where they may not hesitate even to sell off any of their most sacred objects
of heritage and be ready to perform any wretched service on payment.
EN27:40
This sentence has two meanings and both are equally probable: (1) It may
be a part of the queen of Sheba's speech, which she might have added in order
to emphasize her foregoing words; and (2) it may be Allah's words which have
been added as a parenthesis in support of the queen's speech.
I shall send to them a
gift, and then wait to see with what reply my envoys return.” 27:35
When (the envoy of the queen) came to
Solomon, the king said, “Do you want to help me with wealth? What God has
given me is much more than what He has given you.EN27:41 May you yourselves rejoice in your gift! 27:36
EN27:41
This sentence is not meant to express pride and vanity. What it means to say is this: "I have no
desire for your wealth; I only desire that you should believe, or at least
submit to a righteous system. If you
agree to neither of these alternatives, it is not possible for me to accept the
bribes of wealth and leave you free in the matter of a polytheistic and wicked
system of life. What my Lord has given
me is enough for me to cherish any desire for your wealth."
(O messengers,) go
back to your people; we shall bring against them such forcesEN27:42 which they will not be able to withstand, and we shall drive them out
(of their land) humbled and disgraced.” 27:37
EN27:42 There is a subtle gap between this
and the previous sentence, which one can easily fill up by careful study of the
discourse. It means this: "O
messengers, take this gift back to the people who have sent you. They will either have to yield to our first
proposal, i.e., they should come before us as Muslims, or we shall bring forces
against them."
To his courtiers
SolomonEN27:43 said, “Which of you can fetch
me her throne before these people come to me in submission?EN27:44 27:38
EN27:43 The details of the story that have been
omitted are to the effect: The envoys returned to the queen with the gift and
made a report of what they had seen and heard; the queen decided on the basis
of what she heard about the Prophet Solomon to make a visit to Jerusalem to see
him personally; she left Saba for Palestine accompanied by her royal entourage
and sent a message to Solomon 's court that she herself was coming to
personally hear the invitation from the king himself and to have a direct talk
with him. Here the story is resumed from
the time when the queen had reached near Jerusalem and was going to appear
before Solomon in a day or two.
EN27:44 That is, the same throne about
which the hoopoe (hud-hud) had reported, "She has a splendid
throne." Prophet Solomon wanted to
show a miracle also to the queen and her courtiers besides preaching his
message so that she might know what extraordinary powers Allah, Lord of the
worlds, had granted to His Prophet so that she might be convinced that Solomon
was surely a Prophet of Allah. Prophet Solomon
wanted the queen's own throne to be brought from Yaman to Jerusalem and that
too before the queen's arrival.
A mighty one from
among the jinns submitted, “I shall fetch it to you even before you rise
from your placeEN27:45: I posses the necessary power for
it and am trustworthy.”EN27:46 27:39
EN27:45
From this it becomes obvious whether the jinns under the Prophet Solomon
were from among the hidden creation commonly known as jinns. Obviously, the sitting of the Prophet
Solomon's court would be at the most be of three to four hours, and the
distance of Ma'rib, capital of Saba, from Jerusalem was, even as the crow
flies, not less than 1500 miles. To
fetch a splendid throne of a queen from such a distant place in such a short
time could not be possible for a man, even if he be a very strong and robust
person. This task cannot be performed by
a jet plane of today. The throne was not
lying in a jungle from where it had just to be fetched. It lay in a queen's palace, which must have
been kept in a secure place. If a man
had gone to fetch it, he should have been accompanied by a commando force so
that he could overwhelm the guards and snatch away the throne. How could all this be accomplished before the
rising of the court? This thing can be
conceived only in connection with a real jinn!
EN27:46 That is, "You can trust me in
that I will not carry it away, nor steal any valuable thing from it."
He who possessed
knowledge of the Book, spoke out, “I will fetch it to you in the
twinkling of an eye.”EN27:47 As soon as Solomon saw the throne placed before him, he exclaimed:
“This is by the Grace of my Lord so that He may test me (to see) whether
I am grateful or ungrateful!EN27:48 And
the one who is grateful is grateful only for the good of his ownself; as for
the one who is ungrateful, my Lord is All-Sufficient and Self-Exalted.”EN7:49 27:40
EN27:47 Nothing is known with certainty as to
who this person was, what special knowledge he had and what Book is referred to
here, whose knowledge he had. No
explanation of these things has been given either in the Quran or in any
authentic Hadith. In any case the person
was not from among the jinns, and possibly he was a man. He possessed some extraordinary knowledge,
which had been derived from some Divine Book.
The jinn had claimed to fetch the throne within a few hours by means of
his physical strength; this man fetched it in a moment by the power of his
knowledge.
EN27:48 The word of the Quran are very
clear in this regard. This person's
claim did not remain a claim like the jinns's, but, in fact, as soon as he made
the claim the throne was seen placed before the Prophet Solomon the next moment. This event was extraordinary. He feared that
the prompt arrangement of a throne for the honorable gust might cause him to
become ungrateful to Allah instead of being grateful. As far the question as to how a royal throne
was fetched over a distance of 1500 miles in the twinkling of an eye, it can be
briefly answered thus: "The concepts of time and space, and matter and
movement, that we have formed on the basis of our experiments and observations,
are only applicable to us. These
concepts are not correct in respect to God, nor is He bound by these. The God Who by His one command brought this
huge universe into being, had the power to have moved the throne of the queen
of Sheba at a speed greater than the speed of light.
EN27:49 That is, He does not stand in need
of somebody's gratefulness. His Godhead is neither enhanced by an iota by
somebody's gratefulness nor diminished by that amount by somebody's ingratitude
of thankfulness. He is a Sovereign in
His own right. His Sovereignty is not
dependent on His creation's acknowledgement or rejection.
Solomon said,EN27:50 ”Set her throne before her
casually; let us see whether she reaches the truth, or she is one of those who
are not guided aright."EN27:51 27:41
EN27:50 As how the queen reached Jerusalem
and how she was received, has been omitted.
The story is resumed from the time when she had arrived at the palace to
see Prophet Solomon.
EN27:51 This is a meaningful sentence,
which means: (1) "Whether she understands or not that her own throne which
has been fetched in no time from her capital to a distant place like
Jerusalem;" and also (2) "whether she is guided aright after seeing
this wonderful miracle, persists in her error." Here Prophet Solomon clearly says that he had
done this in order to help the queen see Guidance.
When the queen arrived, she was asked, "Is your
throne like this?" She replied, "It is just the same.EN27:52 We had already known this and we
had surrendered (or we had become Muslims)."EN27:53 27:42
EN27:52 Solomon ordered the throne to be
fetched before him, and when it had been fetched, ordered his servants to set
it before the queen casually, and then when she arrived, she was asked whether
her throne was like that, and she answered, "It is just the
same."
EN27:53 That is, "Even before we saw
this miracle we had been convinced by what we had heard of Solomon (pbuh) that
he was a Prophet of Allah, and not merely a ruler of a kingdom." After seeing the throne and saying, "It
is just the same", what could be the relevance of adding this sentence if
it is supposed that the Prophet Solomon had got a throne manufactured and set
the same before her? Even if it is
supposed that no effort was spared to have a throne manufactured closely
resembling the queen's what special excellence it could have to make a
sun-worshipping exclaim: "We had already known this and we had become
Muslims!"
The worship of the deities whom she served instead of
Allah had hindered her (from believing), for she came of an unbelieving people.EN27:54 27:43
EN27:54 This sentence has been added by
Allah to clarify the queen's position, saying that she was not obdurate and
stubborn. She had been an unbeliever
till then mainly because she came of an unbelieving people. As she had accustomed to bowing down before a
false deity since her childhood, it had become a hindrance for her to the right
way. As soon as she came in contact with
the Prophet Solomon, she discerned the right way and the hindrance was removed
forthwith.
She was asked to enter the palace. When she saw it, she thought it was a pool of
water, so she tucked up her skirt to enter it.
Solomon said, "It is the glossy floor of glass."EN27:55 At this she exclaimed, "O my
Lord! I have (hitherto) been unjust to myself; now I submit myself, with
Solomon, to Allah, Lord of the worlds."EN27:56 27:44
EN27:55 This was the lat thing that opened
the queen's eyes. The first thing was
Solomon's letter that had begun with the name of the All-Compassionate, the
All-Merciful Allah, a very different from the common custom prevalent among the
customs. The second was his rejection of
her gifts, which made the queen understand that he was different kind of a
king. The third was the report made by
the king's envoys from which she came to know about Solomon's pious life, his
wisdom and his message of the Truth.
This very ting had induced her to travel to Jerusalem herself to personally
meet the Prophet Solomon, and to this she had referred when she said, "We
had already known this and we had become Muslims, " The fourth thing was the removal of her throne
from Ma'rib to Jerusalem in no time, from which the queen realized that he had
Allah's power at his back. Now this was
the last thing that removed every doubt from her mind regarding the unique and
great personality of the Prophet Solomon.
When she saw that in spite of possessing every means of comfort and ease
and a grand palace for a dwelling, he was so free from every conceit, so
God-fearing and righteous and so grateful to God that he bowed before Him for
every small favor and his life so different from the life of those who were
enamored of the world, she exclaimed word that follows.
EN27:56 This story of the Prophet Solomon
and the queen of Sheba has been related in the Old and the New Testaments and
the Israeli traditions in different ways.
In rabbinical traditions, these wicked people have accused Prophet
Solomon of having committed Solomon of having committed adultery, God forbid,
with the queen of Sheba, giving rise to an illegitimate race, which gave birth
to Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, who destroyed Jerusalem. The fact of the matter is that a section of
the Jewish learned men have been critical of the Prophet Solomon. They have accused him of heinous crimes like
violating the Commandments of Torah, of pride of government, pride of wisdom,
of being a hen-pecked husband, and of luxurious living, polytheism and
idol-worship. It is due to this propaganda
that the Bible presents him only as a king instead of a Prophet, a king who was
lost in the love of polytheistic women against the Divine Commandments, whose
heart was turned away from God, and was turned to other gods and goddesses. Against this it can be seen what great favor
has the Quran done to the Israelites by cleansing the personalities of their
elders of the filth thrown at them by themselves, and yet the Israelites,
ungrateful as they are, look upon the Quran and him who brought it as their
enemies.