David, in Psalm xlv. v. 8, 9, mentions myrrh, aloes, cassia, ivory palaces, and the gold of Ophir.

The Queen of Sheba, in Luke xi. v. 31, is called the “Queen of the South,” that is to say, of the country the most remote known to the Hebrews; see 1 Kings x. 1 and 2, Chron. ix. 1. In vol. ii., p. 233, I have shown how Arabia was situated for commerce, and, bearing its position in mind, it may now be proper to refer to the account of this expedition of Solomon. “And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, ship-men, that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir; and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.... And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, concerning the name of the Lord, she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart: and Solomon told her all her questions; there was not any thing hid from the king which he told her not. And when the Queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cup-bearers, and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land, of thy acts, and of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I believed not the words until I came, and mine eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me; thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth thy fame which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God which delighteth in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel, because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice. And she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones; there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.... And the navy, also, of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones. And the king made, of the almug trees, pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king’s house; harps also, and psalteries for singers; there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day. And King Solomon gave unto the Queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked; besides that which Solomon gave of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.”

Some have looked upon the Queen of Sheba as the Queen of Sabia, situated in the kingdom of Sofala, on the east coast of Africa; but for our present purpose it will only be necessary to recognize in her the head of that portion of the Arabs commanding the south of Arabia, and the Emporia there located, and also on the opposite adjoining north-east coast of Africa—although she may have been Queen of the Arabian kingdom of Sheba, and also the African-Arabic kingdom of Sabia.

The account given of the visit of the Queen of Sheba, both in the 1st book of Kings and also in 2nd book of the Chronicles, is preceded by the statement of the friendly terms on which Solomon was with Hiram, king of Tyre, who, by way of the Gulf of Persia and the Phœnician colonies established there, commanded the commerce of India, which reached Tyre by way of the Persian Gulf, and the Wilderness or the Desert. We are also told, previously to the account of the visit of Solomon’s ships to Ophir, that he built Baalath and Tadmor in the Wilderness (1 Kings ix., 18, and 2 Chron. viii., 4-6), doubtless to secure the caravans of his ally, Hiram, from the depredations of the Bedouin Arabs, while crossing the desert on their way with the merchandize of India, which arrived by the Persian Gulf to Tyre.

This Tadmor or Palmyra was, we know, a fenced city, built in a desert, solely for the protection of commerce, and was lost to the Hebrews on the division of the kingdom after the death of Solomon; it is doubtless the Palmyra so celebrated for its destruction by the Romans, when its Queen, Zenobia, endeavoured to throw off the Roman yoke. It commanded the commerce of India by way of the Gulf of Persia; and therefore we may fairly suppose that the fleets of Solomon and Hiram, which proceeded down the Red Sea, were bent upon opening a new mart of commerce, doubtless that commanded by the Queen of Sheba, who is mixed up with this account, and who, from history, we learn, bore a son to Solomon during her stay in Jerusalem, with whom she returned to her own country.

This was a trade which the Phœnicians had not possession of, and Hiram naturally enlisted the co-operation of his great ally, Solomon, for the purpose of obtaining the productions of Ophir direct, instead of through the Arabs of Southern Arabia. The time chosen was most propitious; it was after the building of Tadmor in the Wilderness, when the affairs of Hiram and Solomon had become united by commerce; and at the period when Solomon had obtained possession of Idumæa or Edom, and his great renown had attracted to his court the Queen of Sheba, who had brought with her those imports into Arabia most valued by her own subjects, as being those sought after by the nations of the west, which gave so great an impulse to the maritime enterprise of the Arabs.

Some difficulty appears to arise from the different reading of the account of the Hebrew-Phœnician ships going to Ophir, as given in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. Let us compare them thus:—

1 Kings, x. 22.2 Chron. ix. 21.
“For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram. Once in every three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.”“For the king’s ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Hiram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold and silver, ivory, and apes and peacocks.”
1 Kings, xxii. 48.2 Chron. xx. 36-37.
“Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they went not; for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber.”“He (Jehoshaphat) joined himself with him (the King of Israel) to make ships to go to Tarshish; and they made the ships in Ezion-gaber.... And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish.”