Queen of Sheba

Queen of Sheba
  • ملكة سبأ (Arabic)
  • ንግስተ ሳባ‎ (Ge'ez)
  • מַלְכַּת שְׁבָא‎ (Hebrew)
Queen of Sheba (1907) by Edward Slocombe
Personal
ReligionReligion of Solomon
NationalitySheba
Other namesMakeda

The Queen of Sheba,[a] known as Bilqis[b] in Yemeni and Islamic tradition and as Makeda[c] in Ethiopian tradition, is a figure first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. In the original story, she brings a caravan of valuable gifts for the Israelite King Solomon. This account has undergone extensive Jewish, Islamic, Yemenite and Ethiopian elaborations,[1][2] and it has become the subject of one of the most widespread and fertile cycles of legends in Asia and Africa.[3]

Modern historians and archaeologists identify Sheba as the ancient South Arabian kingdom of Saba that existed in modern-day Yemen, although no trace of the queen herself has been found.[4][5] The Queen's existence is disputed among some historians.[6]


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  1. ^ "Echoes of a Legendary Queen". Harvard Divinity Bulletin. Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  2. ^ "Queen of Sheba - Treasures from Ancient Yemen". the Guardian. 2002-05-25. Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  3. ^ E. Ullendorff (1991), "BILḲĪS", The Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 2 (2nd ed.), Brill, pp. 1219–1220
  4. ^ "Collection | British Museum". www.britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  5. ^ Israel Finkelstein,David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots' of the Western Tradition p.167
  6. ^ National Geographic, issue mysteries of history, September 2018, p.45.