Although this latter story of the Queen of Sheba is evidently fabulous, there is no doubt that the Bible story is true, because recent explorers have visited the country of the Queen of Sheba and her old capital Marib, a short distance east of Sanaa, and have brought back inscriptions which tell of the ancient glory of her kingdom. In the Old Testament the Sabaeans lived in Sheba, and their caravans brought gold and precious stones and spices into distant lands. (See Job vi. 19; Ezek. xxvii. 22, and Psalm lxxii. 10.)
On my first and second visit to Sanaa, the high mountain capital of all Yemen, I was privileged to look over into the borders of the country where the Queen of Sheba lived, and on the journey described in Chapter III I probably travelled from the coast by the same road which was used in the days of Solomon. It is not easy to build roads in so mountainous a country. Everywhere one can see the ruins of the old Himyarite civilization which flourished here from the time of Solomon until the Christian era. Some of the roads undoubtedly have been kept in repair ever since they were built along the mountainside by these early engineers. Stone bridges across torrent beds, tanks for holding water, and old castles with inscriptions in the strange language, still witness to the strength and vigour of this old empire. The accompanying picture is not that of the Queen of Sheba herself, but is undoubtedly that of a princess in the Sheba country. It was found among many, many other inscriptions and carvings in the land south of Marib, the old capital, where the famous dyke was built which was destroyed by a flood. When you study the picture, you will notice that the woman’s dress, with its ornaments and without a veil, the use of a throne, the carved pillars, and the page boys (or are they girls?) in waiting, are all so very different from the Arabia of to-day. The picture is also interesting when we remember how the early travellers and scientists who copied or brought back these famous inscriptions have confirmed the history of the Old Testament and its many references to South Arabia. One of them says: “The Queen of Sheba proved Solomon with hard questions, all of which in his wisdom he answered her. Now we who study the Old Testament, reversing the process, go to the wonderland of that queen with a multitude of inquiries, to many of which it has already given us a satisfactory reply.”
The capital of the Queen of Sheba, Marib, is largely in ruins, but something of the glory of the old civilization still lingers at Sanaa, which is at once one of the most beautiful and one of the most ancient cities of Arabia, built before the time of Solomon. It lies in a wide valley 7,250 feet above sea level. Jebel Nakum, with its marble quarries, rises abruptly like a fortress, just east of the city. The town is surrounded by a high wall, and has four gates. The houses are many of them four and five stories high, built of stone, and as they have no window-glass, they use slabs of alabaster instead. The population of the city is about fifty thousand, of whom more than twenty thousand are Jews.
A picture carved in stone 2,000 years old, with its inscription, from the land of Sheba
My first visit to the city was in 1891, and the second in 1894. The first time I came straight up from Hodeida through Menakha, and in four days reached the city. The second journey was from Aden northward, leaving on July 2d, but what with delays and accidents and imprisonment by the Turks at Taiz, I did not reach Yemen’s capital until the 2d of August. The most surprising thing about Sanaa is not its old ruins, nor the wonderful fertility of the country round about, but the interesting character of its population. Here was a large city full of Jews who came to this part of the world, as they themselves testified, long before the destruction of Jerusalem; Greek merchants were carrying on a brisk trade in all the manufactured articles of Europe with the Arabs of the interior; Turkish army officials in splendid uniform trying in vain, as they are to-day, with their regiments of Turkish troops to put down Arab rebellions; and then the Arabs themselves, men, women and children, strong mountaineers, with love for liberty and heartily despising the government of which they are unwilling subjects.
Looking northward from this city you can see the highlands of Asir and the distant road that leads through Nejran. All this country was once Christian, and in Sanaa itself stood the great cathedral built by the Abyssinian king, Abraha, about the time when Mohammed was born. From Sanaa he led his army to Mecca, hoping to take the city and convert it to the Christian faith, but he was not successful. In the Koran chapter of “The Elephant,” you may read how the Christians were defeated when smallpox broke out among them. Standing on the slopes of Jebel Nakum and looking eastward, the country of the Queen of Sheba is spread out before you. You can imagine I was very sorry that, having been robbed of all my money on the way, it was impossible to carry out my plan of going from Sanaa to Marib, and from there right across Arabia to Bahrein. Perhaps some of you who read these lines will be privileged to make this journey. If you are, you will pass through some of the most interesting ruins in the world, and the hardships of a camel journey will be abundantly compensated by what you see on the road.