A Tale Of Sheba

This was as told by the orator, Al-tha’ Labi, who said:

“When the world was still young, it was an era of conflicts and upheavals, with the Sultans and heads of kingdoms and clans waging wars against one another for dominance.

During this time Al-Hadhad bin Shara’bil, a king from the region south of Arabia was under siege by a warlord named Amir Dh’l-Ahir. While his enemy camped in the desert outside the city and prepared for a final assault, the king bravely disguised himself as a Bedawi peasant and entered the camp to ascertain their military strength. So doing, he confirmed the arsenal and numbers of Amir Dh’l-Ahir’s men to be insurmountable and thus left there with a heavy heart.

As he was crossing the desert he witnessed a strange sight: two rattlesnakes each twice the size of men, one white and the other black, fighting to the death and only pausing when weary. The white snake, who seemed to be losing the battle, approached him and spoke, begging for help. Out of pity, he raised his water skin and gave it water to quench its thirst. This happened several times, until the white snake had defeated and killed the black one. It then went away.

Weary from his long trek and troubled still, the king took shelter from the sun under some nearby trees. Soon he heard the sound of people approaching and, afraid he had been discovered, drew his gilt sword to defend himself. What he saw was a host of men whose features glowed with unnatural beauty and donned exquisite clothing that shimmered in the light. Bidding him not be afraid, they said they had come to offer thanks to him for the assistance he had given one of their princes against a run-away slave. When one of them – a young man of exceptional fairness – drew close to gesture in gratitude, he noticed the scars on the smiling face.

Realising that the men were actually Djinns of the desert plains, he explained that he was a king and not a lowly Bedawi. When they asked him what he wanted in return, he told them of the great threat that faced his kingdom, and how he feared that the enemy would easily overrun his smaller, less equipped army.

The Djinns listened, then advised him to return to his own camp to await them. This he did, and by the time he reached the camp location outside his kingdom’s fortified gates, his generals gave him the news that Amir’s great army had been routed, driven away in the night by a series of strange and terrible storms. The war had been won without the loss of a single soldier.

Before that day ended, the men appeared to him once more. This time they informed him that they wanted to further reward him by marrying one of their sisters to him, which would be wonderful union between man and Djinn. They gave him one condition however, saying that as long as he was to be married to her, he should not question anything that he saw happening, no matter how strange. When the lady Rawaha was presented to him, he found her so fair of face that he loved her above all in his hareem, and they were married at once.

Not long after, she bore him a son. On the day the child reached one year of age, a giant female dog appeared, seized the child, and fled with him while his mother said nothing in reaction. Shocked, Al-Hahhad was about to protest when he remembered his promise to the Djinns and also said nothing. Their next child was a girl, and when she reached the same age, the large dog materialised once more and stole the child. When her mother stayed silent, the king did as well.

However, on the occasion of the third such abduction of their next child, a boy, he couldn’t help himself and called out to his wife to stop the dog.

Instead her response was to cry out in dismay and say, “Hadhad my love; I must leave thee! Lo, the children are not lost but have gone to be properly nursed and will be returned to thee at the age of five. For your interference, the first boy will die, the second will live as long as my father and will die shortly after him, but the girl will live!”

So saying, she rose up in the air, disappeared, and was never seen again. Not long after, Al-Hadhad found the two children safe in their beds.

Of Nourad the boy, little is known as he died not long after following the death of the king of the Djinns, but the girl remained. Her name was Bilquis, who was also known as Balkis, or Makeeda.”

When the king passed away years later, there was great confusion among the members of his extended family about who would succeed him. In the time before he died, he had acknowledged the budding wisdom and maturity of his daughter and always enjoined the people to support her. However, as he had no male heir, he decreed that his nephew, Amir bin Yafur, would reign in his stead.

When Yafur tried to assume control of the kingdom he was murdered by one of the corrupt generals in the King’s army. Though Bilquis, who was then a young woman, showed great wisdom equal to and even surpassing that of many men, being a woman counted against her and he was unchallenged in his seizure of the throne. When the new king also demanded that she marry him, she accepted.

On the night of the wedding day, he was entertained by his new bride who danced and then plied him with so much wine that he got severely drunk. What happened later that night, according to accounts, was that she either killed him, cut off his head and hung it on her door, or eliminated him using her powers as a child of Djinns. By morning, the false ruler was gone and she emerged to declare herself queen as from that day forth.

For many years Bilquis ruled over her empire with great wisdom. It soon flourished in commerce and agriculture such that it was said that she was known as “A great and mighty sovereign, whose palace was a wonder of construction and who was loved by all her people.” The empire became known by merchants who travelled from far and wide to trade in gold, precious stones and resilient timbers.

At the height of her reign, she established a wondrous, new capital city and called it Aseba, also known to this day as Sheba.”