King Solomon
The First Meeting. How King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba first met.by Ilil Arbel, Ph.D.
King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, ruled not only over men and women, but also over the beasts, birds, demons, spirits and all the specters of the night. Naturally, he could speak all their languages.
One night he invited all the birds to sing to his noble guests. All came except the hoopoe. Angry, the king ordered a search, and when the hoopoe was found and rebuked, the bird explained that he was not guilty of disrespect. On the contrary, for the last three months he had hardly tasted any food or water, flying all over the world to discover if any place existed which was not yet subject to Solomon. Finally he found the land of Sheba, ruled by a beautiful and wise woman called Queen Balkys, where they have not heard the name of Solomon. The lush land in the middle of the desert boasted gold, silver, and great gems, and one of the most valuable treasures of the royal line was the throne, intricately carved of precious woods and inlaid with ivory and gold. The inhabitants of Sheba did not know the meaning of war, said the hoopoe. Solomon could easily conquer the land and take all its fabulous riches.
But that was not the king’s wish. Instead, he wrote a letter and tied it to the wing of the hoopoe. The letter invited the queen to come and pay tribute to King Solomon, like the rest of the kings and queens of the world. If she would consent to do so, he would treat her with honor and bestow gifts upon her country. If she would refuse, her land would be attacked and destroyed in the name of the one true God who gave Solomon his supremacy.
All the queen’s counselors were against it, as they have never heard of Solomon or his power. But she decided to take the trip and avert the wrath of God. Immediately she sent King Solomon a delegation of six thousand youths and maidens, all born the same year, month, day and hour. They were all of the same stature and all wore purple garments. And to the hoopoe she gave a letter promising the king that even though the trip from Sheba to Jerusalem usually took seven years, she would hasten to arrive in three years.
When she finally arrived, the queen was received with great honor and led to King Solomon’s throne room. To her amazement, she saw that her own throne stood next to the King’s! Smiling, the King told her that he thought she would be more comfortable sitting on her own throne while visiting, so he sent a few of his demon slaves to bring it over the night before her arrival. Queen Balkys was impressed with the magic, but she knew that wisdom mattered much more, and wanted to find out if the king’s wisdom matched his reputation. Therefore, she requested the right to pose three riddles to the king as a test. The king agreed, explaining to the queen that God’s wisdom, not his own, gave him his power.
The first riddle was: "what is the ugliest thing in the world, and what the most beautiful? What the most certain, and what the most uncertain?"
The king answered: "The ugliest thing in the world is the faithful turning unfaithful; the most beautiful, the repentant sinner. The most certain thing in the world is death; the most uncertain, one’s share in the World to Come."
The second riddles was: "What is it that in a storm at sea goes ahead of all; is the cause of praise for the wealthy; of shame to the poor; honors the dead and saddens living; is a joy to birds and a grief to fish?" The king answered: "Flax. When woven into cloth it makes a sail for the ship, fine clothes for the rich, rags for the poor, shrouds for the dead. The birds delight in its seed; but the fish are caught in the nets made of it." The third riddle was: "What land is that which has but once seen the sun?"
The king answered: "The land upon which, after the creation, the waters were gathered."
Convinced of the King’s wisdom, Queen Balkys offered to pay a yearly tribute and swear her loyalty. The king graciously refused all tribute, and requested to have her loyalty and friendship only. He promised to visit often when the queen returned to her home, because he had a great eagle that could magically take him to Sheba in one night. In addition, he offered her gifts which were even more valuable than those she brought him. The friendship between the two royal houses was assured, and both nations were happy.
Source:
Sefer Haagada. Editors: H.N Bialik and Y.H. Ravnitzki. Dvir, Tel Aviv, 1933.
Solomon's daughter.
How Solomon's daughter found her husband.by Ilil Arbel, Ph.D.
King Solomon's favorite daughter was of mysterious origin. She had no mother in the court, and some say she was the daughter of the Queen of Sheba, left to Solomon care, while the queen took her twin brother to be her heir in Sheba. The princess was extraordinarily beautiful, clever and sweet, and Solomon planned a bright future for her, probably as the consort of a king of an allied country.
Solomon read the stars each night, and much of the future revealed itself to him clearly. To his dismay, the stars told him that his beloved princess would marry a poverty-stricken young man. The circumstances were not made clear, and in his desperation to change fate he decided to hide the princess in a faraway retreat. He explained the circumstances to the princess, and she trusted her father and consented to follow his plan.
In the middle of the Mediterranean, on a tiny uncharted Island, the king erected a huge tower. The tower had no door, and only one spacious and luxurious apartment at the top, with windows facing every direction so as to be comfortable and airy. The king stocked it with every comfort -- scrolls to study and read for amusement, elegant furnishings, supplies for the needlework she did so well, a harp to accompany her lovely voice as she sang. The princess could go up and stroll on a roof garden, watered by the spirits of the ocean that served the king. Each night, a mighty eagle, Solomon’s trusty servant, brought her food for the next day and checked that all was well with her health and happiness. The princess was lonely, but not unhappy, and though she missed her father and her friends, wisely waited to see what time would bring. The king promised that he would visit her every six months.
Meanwhile, the young man destined to marry the princess sailed the Mediterranean. He was a particularly handsome and well-educated young man, the son of a wealthy and well-respected merchant of the town of Acco. On behalf of his father, the young man commanded a ship laden with silk and tea from China and traveling to the faraway land of Sepharad. But this was not one of firm’s ships, manned by the usual trustworthy employees. The firm was unusually busy that year, and the merchant had to hire a ship and its own crew for this trip. Midway, the crew mutinied, took over the ship and its cargo, and put the young man into a tiny boat to drift away with only a little food and water.
Thanking God that at least the sailors did not kill him, the young man drifted for a couple of days. One evening, his food and water almost gone, he spotted a tiny island in the distance. Trying to row with his hands toward the island, he suddenly saw a giant eagle hovering over him. Terrified, the young man looked into the monster’s eyes and realized that human intelligence and kindness gleamed in them. Recognizing a miracle, he allowed the eagle to gently lift him and carry him straight to the tower’s roof, where a vision of a beautiful young woman stood waiting. It was love at first sight for both.
After bathing and eating, he told the princess how he lost all his money and was now a poverty-stricken man with no land and no prospect of returning to his father’s home. The princess understood that this had to be the man mentioned by the stars, and that the will of God was stronger than all the plans her father could fashion. They decided to marry in the old way of writing the contract with their own blood, and await the king’s visit.
When the king arrived for his promised visit, he could not be angry or dismayed by the fact that his plans were thwarted. King Solomon was the wisest man that had ever lived, and he knew that from time to time, he must humbly recognize that he was only a man and God’s will was greater. Besides, the young man may not have been a king of a neighboring country, but his poverty was only temporary, his lineage respectable, and he could rise to great success. Besides, he was a great scholar and quite handsome -- qualities which would probably be passed to his son or daughter, obviously soon to be born. And it is well documented that Solomon was very fond of babies.
Sources: Midrashic legend.
http://www.pantheon.org/areas/featured/solomon/ksqb-4.html
