[392] The Abyssinian, confusing Sheba (Arabia Felix) with Seba (as do Origen and Augustine), call her Makeda, Queen of Abyssinia, and say that she had a son by Solomon named Melinek (Ludolphus, Æthiop., ii. 3), from whom all their emperors down to Theodore were descended. The legend of the Queen of Sheba is related in the Qur'an, Sura xxvii. 20-40 (chapter of the Ant). The Arabs call her Balkis, whose legends are narrated by D'Herbelot (Bibl. Or., s.v. Balki). Josephus identifies her with Nicaule (the Nitocris of Herod., ii. 100), Josephus, Antt., VIII. vi. 2. In the New Testament she is called "the Queen of the South" (Matt. xii. 42).
[393] He had made two hundred large shields (tzinnîm, θυρεοί, scuta) and three hundred targets (maginnîm, ἀσπίδες, clypei) of gold at fabulous cost (1 Kings x. 16). They were all plundered by Shishak.
[394] 1 Kings x. 5, but "ascent" should perhaps be "burnt offering," as in margin of R.V. and in all the versions. Comp. 2 Chron. ix. 4 (LXX.). A special seat or platform of brass seems to have been assigned to Solomon in the Temple court (2 Kings xi. 14, xvi. 18, xxiii. 3; 2 Chron. vi. 13).
[395] Josephus says that she introduced the balsam plant into Palestine, which, in later years at Jericho, became a great source of revenue. Jer. viii. 22, xlvi. 11; Ezek. xxvii. 17; Josephus, Antt.; VIII. vi. 6, XIV. iv. 1, XV. iv. 2; Pliny, H. N., xii. 54, xiii. 9 (but see Gen. xliii. 11).
[396] Psalm lxxii. 15. Spices, Herod., iii. 107-113. For one hundred and twenty talents we should probably read twenty (comp. Josephus, Antt., VIII. vi. 6), i.e., twelve thousand pounds. Into the riddles of Balkis (1 Kings x. 1, "hard questions"; LXX., αἰνίγματα), and all the strange Talmudic and Arabian legends which have gathered round her visit, we need not enter. I may perhaps refer to my little monograph on Solomon (pp. 134-37), in the Men of the Bible series.
[397] The 666 gold talents of his revenue are estimated at £3,613,500, and this is described as his own revenue, exclusive of tolls, tributes, etc. (1 Kings x. 15). Presents reached him from "kings of the mingled people" (Jer. xxv. 24), Pachas of the country (פֶחָה Ezra v. 6; Neh. v. 14).
[398] See Weil, Biblische Legenden; D'Herbelot, Bibl. Oriental, s.v. Soliman ben-Daoud; Qur'an, Suras xxii., xxvii., xxviii., xxxiv. "Suleyman" means "Little Solomon," a term of affection.
[399] Stanley, Lectures, ii. 166, 167.
[400] See Euseb., Præp. Evang., x. 11.
[401] Lev. xxv. 23, 24. See Judg. i. 31, 32.