The Queen of Sheba is a model to all inquirers. It was not enough for
her to have heard of the fame of Solomon and to have admired him at a
distance as a unique genius. Her admiration excited her interest and
suspicion, and, being a woman of penetrating mind, she desired to put
riddles and enigmas whereby she could test the proverbial wisdom of
Solomon.
When she arrived at his court she did not put flippant questions to King
Solomon. She rather sought out the most difficult inquiries which she
could possibly make.
It is recorded that Solomon told the queen all her questions, and there
was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not. She was astounded by
what she heard and what she saw. She declared that the half had not been
told her.
The visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, though not strictly
commercial, arose out of commercial intercourse. The territory of
Sheba, according to Strabo, reached so far north as to meet that of the
Nabathæans, although its proper seat was at the southernmost angle of
Arabia.
The very rich presents made by the queen show the extreme value of her
commerce with the Hebrew monarch. This early interchange of hospitality
derives a peculiar interest from the fact that in much later ages--those
of the Maccabees and downward--the intercourse of the Jews with Sheba
became so intimate and their influence and power so great. Jewish
circumcision took root there, and princes held sway there who were called
Jewish.
The language of Sheba is believed to have been very different from
the literate Arabic; yet, like the Ethiopic, it belonged to the great
Syro-Arabian family, and was not alien to the Hebrew in the same sense
that the Egyptian language was.
The great ease with which the pure monotheism of the Maccabees spread
itself in Sheba gives plausibility to the opinion that even at the time
of Solomon the people of Sheba had much religious superiority over the
Arabs and Syrians in general. If so, it becomes clear how the curiosity
of the southern queen would be worked on by seeing the riches of the
distant monarch, whose purer creed must have been carried everywhere with
them by his sailors and servants.