Queen of Sheba (33 page)

“I have come with many questions for your brother.”

“So I’ve heard. What do you intend to ask?”

She stood up abruptly and became very serious. Solomon put the ant back down and stood up beside her and they started to walk toward the grape arbor before she spoke. “I want to know so many things,” she said. “Where does the rain come from? What makes the wind blow? Why can some things like snakes kill a person? Why are animals and birds afraid of people?”

She stopped to catch her breath and Solomon laughed. “You think he can answer all those questions?”

“Maybe not all, but some, and those aren’t the most important questions.”

“The most important? What are the most important questions?”

“Why does Solomon have to obey a law? Which is stronger, good or evil? But most important, what is truth and how can we know what is true and real? How, for instance, can we be sure we are worshiping the true God?”

Solomon was astounded. These were questions he had pondered. He had never known another man to ask such questions, and here was a woman, a frail, beautiful woman asking them. “I hope you won’t be disappointed.”

She laughed. “At least he can tell me if he keeps the four winds under his throne.”

“You heard that I … that he keeps the four winds …” Solomon burst out in a jolly laugh. “I’m sure he can answer that easily. He may ask in turn that you tell him if the queen of Sheba has the feet of a donkey.”

“The feet of a donkey! How ridiculous. He has heard that I have the feet of a donkey?”

“Yes. One of the traders said he had seen them with his own eyes.”

She laughed and lifted her skirt just enough to show the dainty feet encased in jeweled sandals. “I can’t imagine …” she started to say and then stopped and thought. “Of course, my throne is made of alabaster and the legs of the throne are carved into the hooves of a bull. When my skirt is wide it could look as though …” She laughed again. This time almost boisterously. “I’ll wager it’s your trader Badget that’s made this report.”

“You’re right.”

“Of course you didn’t believe him.”

“Well, he said …” They both laughed so hard the servants in the
palace heard and wondered. Solomon hadn’t really laughed like this in years. All formal barriers were washed away in this little episode. They no longer saw each other as foreign dignitaries but as delightful individuals.

In the next few days Solomon was bothered by only one thing; he wanted to confess who he was. Yet each time he tried to tell her he found it would have spoiled the mood of the moment. Finally, on the last day before he left to go back to Jerusalem he told her, “When you come to Jerusalem there will be many surprises. I’ll do my best to make them all pleasant ones for your sake. Remember, there is a reason for everything.”

When Solomon got back to his palace, he ordered a great procession organized to bring the queen of Sheba from Jericho to Jerusalem. He called the poets to write songs in her honor, and drummers, trumpeters, and dancers to come before her company into Jerusalem. He had his bravest men with their spears and golden shields to stand at attention down the road that led over Olivet and along the Kidron Valley to the Fountain Gate.

It was to be a festive day with no work for anyone, and so the people crowded up onto the walls and lined the road from the far side of Olivet down to the Kidron. They were singing and waving palm branches, each one hoping to catch a glimpse of the queen of Sheba.

No one was disappointed. The queen’s caravan was far more impressive than they had imagined. It was even noted with due excitement that the queen herself had been seen parting her curtains to look at the scenery.

Bilqis had been reluctant to leave the winter palace in Jericho. She had loved the relaxed atmosphere, the perfumed air, the openness of pillars and lattice instead of high stone walls that shut out the sun. Most of all she had loved the time she spent with the young prince. Here was a man she was in danger of losing her heart to and she had actually found it exciting.

For a short time she had been able to forget she was a queen and just enjoy being a woman. He hadn’t said anything about marriage or wanting her to do anything or be anything. He just seemed to enjoy being with her. There had been a few moments when she had experienced a decidedly new
emotion. The way he had looked at her and then two times when their hands had touched and the times when they hadn’t touched but she had felt a drawing, pulling excitement—these were memories she treasured.

The ride to Jerusalem seemed very short. She had looked out only on two occasions. Once when a young poet stopped the caravan so he could recite a lovely poem in her honor and then again when they were just over the hill and the whole caravan had stopped to look at Solomon’s city.

It was all that the traders had described and more. A city of gold and marble ascending on tiers to the pinnacle that was crowned by an exquisite temple. There seemed nothing of darkness or hidden ugliness about this temple. It was all constructed of simple, elegant lines with golden doors that flashed and sparkled in the sunlight and arched courts that seemed filled with light.

Her eyes briefly swept over the maze of marble buildings she imagined were the king’s palace complex and on down to the lush, green garden that ran along below the city’s walls. She wondered what this king would be like. Certainly he could not be more charming than his brother. His brother was too charming. She had found her mind returning again and again to his smile, his brief touch, and the way they had laughed together.

With one last glance at the lovely city called Jerusalem, she closed the curtains and ordered the caravan to move on. As they approached the gates her own trumpeters blew a royal accolade in her honor. The drummers who had come out to meet her from the city began a stirring beat and dancers and singers sang a lively welcome.

Once inside the gate she pulled out her brass mirror with the snakes entwined on the handle. She smiled remembering the prince’s saying they had heard she had the feet of a donkey. She wet one finger and smoothed her eyebrows into an arch, bit her lips to make them red, studied her eyes to determine what the prince had seen that made him look at her with such pleasure. She laughed and put the mirror down. “I must be sure the king gets a glimpse of my feet.”

Everything had proceeded as planned. Tamrin, her own emissary, informed her that the camels with the gifts had all started to arrive an hour before and the last of the gifts were just at the moment being brought in before the king. Only the white horse and a few other choice surprises would not be given right now.

The queen’s camel knelt and the howdah was removed and placed on the shoulders of twenty Nubians with leopardskin skirts, bright turbans, golden nose rings, and ankle bracelets. They set the howdah down at the foot of the throne, pulled the curtains back and the queen stepped out. Immediately the court erupted with shouts of welcome, the blare of trumpets, singers shaking tambourines, drummers drumming, and now and then the clash of cymbals. No one noticed that the queen stood at the foot of the marble steps in shocked disbelief. All they saw was the king descending the steps, taking her by the hand and leading her to sit beside him on his wide throne.

Bilqis was speechless. It was obvious the prince and the king were one and the same. His eyes met hers with the same delight she had seen in them when they were in the winter palace. However, she felt nothing but indignation that he should have let her believe he was just a prince. She felt embarrassed in front of all these people. To be thrown off guard at such a time was something that had never happened to her before.

She smiled and nodded to the crowded room of people but she refused to look at the king. Even when he stood and publicly thanked her for coming so far and bringing such treasures, she refused to meet his gaze and instead smiled her most enchanting smile for his counselors and tribesmen.

On each side of the throne she noticed women, dozens of them, all with children. Two of them sat on each side of the marble steps on slightly elevated platforms with ebony and gold thrones. One was definitely the Egyptian queen and the other must be the queen from Rabbath Amman. “He’d better not think I’ll be swayed by his charms like these silly women,” she thought. “I must not forget that I’m the queen of Sheba. I almost succumbed to his charm, but now I’m wiser. I’ll not be moved by his subtle sorcery.”

Solomon could see that it would be difficult to mend the breach between them. She had obviously been hurt by his thoughtlessness in letting her believe he was Nathan. He tried in every way he knew to get her aside long enough to explain, but she was careful to avoid any moments alone with him. She was pleasant but distant, and he longed for the bright,
unfettered exchange they had enjoyed in Jericho.

In spite of this she managed to take advantage of every opportunity to ask the questions that had been uppermost in her mind. After she had probed every aspect of his new shipping venture in the Red Sea, she began to ask questions about the temple and the God of Israel. He was surprised. Traditionally the main concern of women in Israel was to seek cleansing in the Mikvah once a month and to light the sabbath lamps. In the temple area they were allowed no farther than the Court of the Women. He hesitated even to answer her questions about the God of Israel.

Finally he was persuaded to bring her as far as the porch of the temple and let her look through the folding leaf doors into the splendor of the Holy Place. He saw her eyes fasten with amazement on the gigantic grapevine of pure, sparkling gold that was fastened above the doors. “The clusters are as high as a man,” she exclaimed in astonishment.

Then she noticed the careful workmanship on the doors. He saw her reach out and touch with one finger the folded wing on one of the golden cherubim. She lightly touched the palm trees and open flowers all carved into the olive wood of the doors and then covered with gold.

Solomon noticed that as she moved to where she could get a glimpse inside at the Holy Place she drew in her breath sharply. She was obviously impressed to see the same patterned cherubim and palm trees carved into the gold-covered cedar wood that she had seen in the doors.

Her eyes passed over the golden incense burner, lingered for a moment on the table holding the shewbread, and then came to rest on the seven-branched candelabra. She noticed that it was as high as a man, with a seven-petaled pomegranate flower as decoration, and that the bowls to hold the wicks were in the shape of almond blossoms. “How beautiful!” she exclaimed. Her eyes were shining and her mouth slightly open in amazement.

“And,” she said, “you do have an idol behind the curtain at the back.”

“No idol. It’s forbidden,” he said as he noted her incredulity.

“Then if there’s no idol, what do you have in the holiest place?”

“A golden box,” he said as he started to lead her away. The finality with which he said it made it quite evident he wasn’t ready to discuss it further. At least for the time being the subject was closed.

While he remained reluctant to discuss the strange furniture she
had seen in the Holy Place or the golden box in the Holy of Holies, still there were other aspects of the temple he was eager to talk about. He explained how water from a great distance was piped into cisterns beneath the temple, how the priests must wear only linen garments and must never wear them outside the temple area. Finally he told her that only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies and that only once a year on the Day of Atonement.