The Queen of Sheba is a figure that is rather like King Arthur. A real person from the past whose life is basically mythical.

The Quran has a story about her but she is called Bilqis. And among Arabs there rose many legends about her. One of these legends says that King Solomon had a genie…

🤨 A genie? Like in Aladdin?

The very same.

😏 So I can assume this is a mythical tale?

Quite.

The genie (called a jinn in Islamic folklore) was worried that Solomon might be tempted to marry the Queen of Sheba. So the genie told Solomon that she had hairy legs and the hooves of an ass. Here’s what the Encyclopedia Brittanica says happened next:

“Solomon, being curious about such a peculiar phenomenon, had a glass floor built before his throne so that Bilqīs, tricked into thinking it was water, raised her skirts to cross it and revealed that her legs were truly hairy. Solomon then ordered the jinn to create a depilatory for the queen.”

🤨 Hold on… So the genie invented… Nair?

According to Arab folklore, yes.

🤣

😏 And so did Solomon marry her?

It’s not clear. Some legends say yes, others no.

🤔 But didn’t they have a son or something?

Well… that’s possible. I mean, Solomon was not exactly monogamous. And he had a particular fancy for “exotic” women from distant lands. So, yeah, it’s possible.

Many people read an intimate encounter into this verse:

“And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants.”
‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭10‬:‭13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

So I suppose, if she desired to have a child with him, he was only too happy to oblige. Another legend says that Solomon tricked her into bed with him.

😏 Tricked? Uh huh. I like the hairy legs and magical Nair story better.

Me too.

It’s important to note, however, that the story of the Queen of Sheba having a son by Solomon did not appear until the 1300’s AD. And those written accounts were used as political propaganda to help establish the legitimacy of a new king to rule in the kingdom that had once (supposedly) been part of the kingdom of Sheba.

That’s why I said that the Queen of Sheba is like King Arthur. She was a real person, but most of the stories about her are, shall we say, rather fanciful.

The sad thing about this section of scripture is that Solomon’s taste for women led him to blatantly disobey a clear and direct command from the LORD. We just read a few days ago where YHWH appeared to Solomon and warned him:

“But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.”
‭‭1 Kings‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬-‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The historian who wrote the book of Kings makes reference to Deut. 7:1-4 where Moses commanded Israel not to marry foreigners…

“for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭7‬:‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Solomon is the most intelligent man on the planet. He KNOWS what God said. His fall into idolatry is not the result of ignorance. It’s rebellion. He would rather please his wives (and himself) than God. Sounds rather like Adam. Solomon thought he had it all under control. He had 900 women to serve his lustful appetite. But, as always happens, the one who thought he has the power to do as he pleased became a slave – to his wives and his own sexual addiction. The ancient Jewish historian Josephus wrote that Solomon “grew mad in his love of women and laid no restraint on himself in his lusts…” (Antiq. 8.7.5)

He broke his end of the covenant so now the throne of David over all Israel will come to an end after only 1 generation.

The LORD tells Solomon this. Josephus recounts that God sent a prophet to tell the bad news to Solomon – much like Nathan the Prophet told David the bad news after his sin with Bathsheba.

The LORD raised up adversaries against Solomon and sent a prophet to a government official named Jeroboam. He had been in charge of a large work-force for Solomon on the construction of the Millo.

The Millo was a defensive earthwork originally built by the Jebusites. It was basically a huge stone retaining wall probably built to protect the precious water source in the settlement; the Gihon Spring. The word “Millo” is related to the Hebrew word for “fill.” David extended this rampart and Solomon seems to have reinforced it and built on top of it.

Part of that retaining wall has been uncovered by archeologists.

This picture above may be what remains of this…

Whatever the building project was exactly, Jeroboam had been the lead man. And he did so well that Solomon appointed him over the tribes of Joseph (Ephraim & Manasseh). So Jeroboam was not a random guy from no where. He was a government official appointed by Solomon.

Jeroboam’s encounter with the Prophet Ahijah the Shilonite reminds me a little of when Saul tore the piece from Samuel’s robe. And Samuel tells him that the kingdom has been torn away from him. In this case, Ahijah the Prophet tears his own new garment into 12 pieces and offers ten of them to Jeroboam. It’s the exact same symbolism as with Saul and Samuel only in reverse.

Josephus includes a detail not in the text about what Jeroboam did after receiving this prophecy:

“So Jeroboam was elevated by these words of the prophet; and being a young man of a warm temper, and ambitious of greatness, he could not be quiet; and when he had so great a charge in the government, and called to mind what had been revealed to him by Ahijah, he endeavored to persuade the people to forsake Solomon, to make a disturbance, and to bring the government over to himself.” – Antiquities of the Jews, Book 8, Chapter 7, Verse 8.

In other words, Jeroboam led a coup. Sounds a bit like Moses trying to deliver Israel by killing the Egyptian. And like Moses, it only succeeded in getting his face on a “Wanted Dead or Alive” poster. Ironically, Jeroboam flees… to Egypt.

Solomon started out so well. And everything – absolutely EVERYTHING was in his favor. He had no enemy nations attacking him. He had all the wealth he could want. He had all the intelligence and ability he needed. He lacked for NOTHING. And look where he ended up. This is all the proof I need that…

People do not engage in sin because a lack of intelligence or opportunity or resources.

People engage in sin because humans have weak, sinful hearts.

How else do you explain Solomon?

Let’s quit trying to blame everything else.

Even as Christians we need to be cautious about this. It’s tempting to blame a sinful lapse on everything else except our own tendency toward selfishness and sin. That’s a sure way to ignore the problem until it has grown and enslaved us.

The story of Solomon starts as an exciting adventure filled with golden possibilities and ends as a cautionary tale.