Hundreds of legends of the peoples of Africa, Asia and Europe tell about the mysterious queen of the country of Saven. Some paint her as a beautiful, intelligent and rich woman, others portray her as a demoness of the Black African desert. The Old Testament describes the visit of the queen to the wise Solomon; in the New Testament, he appears at the Last Judgment as an apocalyptic judge of justice. The Negus dynasty, which ruled in Ethiopia until 1976, traced its lineage from the legendary Queen of Sheba. What is this mysterious person? Mythical image or historical person?
In many African legends, Makeda, she is also the mysterious Queen of Sheba, overcomes difficult political situations, most often mythical. But several legends speak of her as a real historical figure. Until 1976, she was officially considered the progenitor of the world's oldest royal dynasty. Its real (as it is believed) history is conveyed by the Aksumite royal tradition "The Greatness of Kings". Aksum was the capital of the Ethiopian state from the 1st to the 5th century, and the national Ethiopian epic written in the 14th century - the most amazing creation of all literature in black Africa - was born in this ancient metropolis.
The most fascinating epic is based on the visit of the Queen of Sheba to the biblical king Solomon. The queen is a written beauty, a highly intelligent woman. She was driven by a desire to comprehend the wisdom of Solomon. She undertook a long and very tedious journey to Solomon in Jerusalem. When she finally arrived at the king's palace, the ruler decided to seduce her. Having been refused, Solomon vowed that he would not resort to violence, but demanded an oath from her that she would not "resort to violence in his house." Solomon gave orders to feed the queen with dishes that made her thirsty. But when she drank water from a jug next to the bed at night, Solomon announced that she had broken her oath, acted like a thief and that he, in turn, did not consider himself bound by the oath, after which he took Makeda by force. That night, the epic says, he slept badly and had a bad dream:“He dreamed of a shining sun; it descended from the firmament and began to incinerate Israel with rays, and then rolled to Ethiopia, where it was established forever and began to brightly illuminate this land."
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, painting by Samuel Coleman.
Placing the story of Solomon's dream in The Greatness of Kings, the authors of the legend successfully translate the historical narrative into the plane of politics. The symbolic sun personified the son of the Queen of Sheba, Menelik, conceived by her from King Solomon; she raised him on her own, moving to Ethiopia. The son of the Queen of Sheba became the first Ethiopian king. Before that, only women ruled the country! All Ethiopian rulers subsequently proudly called themselves Molomonids, and their dynasty was not interrupted until 1976, when the last successor of the family, Emperor Haile Selassi, was deposed from his throne. Among the descendants of the Queen of Sheba, he occupied the 225th place. In the text of the Ethiopian Constitution, adopted in 1955, these claims are very clearly defined: “Imperial dignity is forever assigned to the lineage of Haile Selassi I, who descends from the Menelik I dynasty,the son of the Queen of Ethiopia, the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon of Jerusalem."
However, the relationship of the Queen of Sheba with the Ethiopian nation is not limited only to the role of the ancestor of the dynasty. The "Greatness of Kings" further reports that Solomon himself later crowned his offspring on the Ethiopian throne, and ordered the eldest sons of his high officials and priests to serve in the Ethiopian court. However, the new rulers did not want to be cut off from the deity in a foreign land, whose emanation from the time of Moses was embodied in the Ark of the Covenant revered by the Israelites. Without hesitation, they … stole this ancient Israeli shrine and took it to Aksum, the ancient residence of the Ethiopian rulers. From this point on, Ethiopia becomes the "new Israel".
… So, the mysterious figure of the Queen of Sheba, who returned to Africa and gave birth to a son there, known in biblical history as Menelik, became a symbol of the black race.
Who was this woman, who so amazingly influenced the course of world history? The Bible offers a slightly different version from the one offered by The Greatness of Kings. Accompanied by two hundred courtiers, the queen set off from her native Seba on a long journey to the capital of the king of Israel. She carried with her the most valuable gifts. Having tested the wisdom of Solomon in riddles and satisfied with his answers, the queen, who in turn received luxurious gifts, returned to her homeland with all her subjects. Rape, as well as the conceived child, is not discussed in the Bible.
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Certain difficulties arise with dating. Solomon reigned from about 965 to 926 BC. e., and the first evidence of the existence of the monarchy of the Savei appears about 150 years later. But that doesn't mean anything yet. The kingdom of the Saves lay in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, roughly where North Yemen is now. “Much is still hidden under the sands of the desert, and there are strong speculations that the palace of the Queen of Sheba could be located in the ancient capital of Marib under a thick layer of construction debris and sand,” says British researcher James Pritchard. “It is also possible that she ruled as nomads and did not have a permanent residence. This is evidenced by the legends of Ancient Arabia, in which the queen appears as a pagan who worshiped the stars and the Sun. It was only when she met Solomon that she accepted the God of the Jews. The ancient Savaean deity of the Moon (he was also worshiped by a pagan queen) was called Almaka. Subsequently, the Queen of Sheba was also called so. However, in the Islamic world it was known as Bilqis, and the ruins of the Almaka temple in Marib have been called the Bilqis temple since time immemorial. Perhaps, historical science really deals with the three queens Makeda-Almak-Bilkis?
According to the sacred books of the Jews, Solomon, who learned about the beauty and wealth of the queen from the south, sent a hoopoe to bring her to the court. Three years later, the queen reached the Jewish capital, but the king of Judea Solomon was disappointed: "Your beauty is a woman's, your hair is like a man's, but for a woman it's a shame!" Jewish legends certainly note that the legs of the queen were covered with unusually dense vegetation, which was considered a sign of demonic origin! According to the ancient Jews, the queen herself seduced Solomon, however, only after her hair was removed from her legs with a magic ointment. The child that Solomon gave the demoness was none other than Nebuchadnezzar, the tyrant who destroyed Solomon's temple and took most of the Jews to Babylon. However, this has nothing to do with history: Nebuchadnezzar ruled 400 years after Solomon.
Islam, which, like Christianity and Judaism, relies on the Old Testament, the Queen of Sheba is also known. The 27th chapter of the Qur'an is dedicated to the visit of the Queen of Solomon. It also mentions the hoopoe, and says that the former pagan believed in one God.
Here we are talking about her hairy legs. In the Arab tradition, she receives the name Bilqis. In later Muslim narratives, however, it is said that it was evil spirits who attributed demonic physical disabilities to the queen, so that Solomon would be disappointed in her. But the king himself was convinced of the extraordinary beauty and impeccability of Bilkis, with whom he shared the bed and the throne. Thus, in the Islamic world, the queen turned into a mythical figure symbolizing both a royal person and a royal beloved.
Bilkis, Lilith, Almka, Makeda, Queen of the South, Queen of Sheba - as soon as the legends called this woman! In the legends of the peoples of the world, one cannot find a darker and more mysterious personality …
Source: “Interesting newspaper. Special No. 8