Is Queen of Sheba (or Saba) called "Bilquis" in the Quran?

[Heba E. Husseyn]

 


As-Salam Alaikum, everyone.

The answer to the question in the heading is NO.   To analyze this topic, let us first quote Verses 20 to 44 of Surah 27 (An-Naml) for the convenience of our readers.

SURAH 27.  VERSES 20 TO 44.
20. And he sought among the birds and said: How is it that I see not the hoopoe, or is he among the absent ?
21. I verily will punish him with hard punishment or I verily will slay him, or he verily shall bring me a plain excuse.
22. But he was not long in coming, and he said: I have found out (a thing) that thou apprehendest not, and I come unto thee from Sheba with sure tidings.
23. Lo! I found a woman ruling over them, and she hath been given (abundance) of all things, and hers is a mighty throne.
24. I found her and her people worshipping the sun instead of Allah; and Satan maketh their works fairseeming unto them, and debarreth them from the way (of Truth), so that they go not aright;
25. So that they worship not Allah, Who bringeth forth the hidden in the heavens and the earth, and knoweth what ye hide and what ye proclaim,
26. Allah; there is no God save Him, the Lord of the Tremendous Throne.
27. (Solomon) said: We shall see whether thou speakest truth or whether thou art of the liars.
28. Go with this my letter and throw it down unto them; then turn away and see what (answer) they return,
29. (The Queen of Sheba) said (when she received the letter): O chieftains! Lo! there hath been thrown unto me a noble letter.
30. Lo! it is from Solomon, and lo! it is: In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful;
31. Exalt not yourselves against me, but come unto me as those who surrender.
32. She said: O chieftains! Pronounce for me in my case. I decide no case till ye are present with me.
33. They said: We are lords of might and lords of great prowess, but it is for thee to command; so consider what thou wilt command.
34. She said: Lo! kings, when they enter a township, ruin it and make the honour of its people shame. Thus will they do.
35. But lo! I am going to send a present unto them, and to see with what (answer) the messengers return.
36. So when (the envoy) came unto Solomon, (the King) said: What! Would ye help me with wealth ? But that which Allah hath given me is better than that which He hath given you. Nay it is ye (and not I) who exult in your gift.
37. Return unto them. We verily shall come unto them with hosts that they cannot resist, and we shall drive them out from thence with shame, and they will be abased.
38. He said: O chiefs! Which of you will bring me her throne before they come unto me, surrendering ?
39. A stalwart of the jinn said: I will bring it thee before thou canst rise from thy place. Lo! I verily am strong and trusty for such work.
40. One with whom was knowledge of the Scripture said: I will bring it thee before thy gaze returneth unto thee. And when he saw it set in his presence, (Solomon) said: This is of the bounty of my Lord, that He may try me whether I give thanks or am ungrateful. Whosoever giveth thanks he only giveth thanks for (the good of) his own soul; and whosoever is ungrateful (is ungrateful only to his own soul's hurt). For lo! my Lord is Absolute in independence, Bountiful.
41. He said: Disguise her throne for her that we may see whether she will go aright or be of those not rightly guided.
42. So, when she came, it was said (unto her): Is thy throne like this ? She said: (It is) as though it were the very one. And (Solomon said): We were given the knowledge before her and we had surrendered (to Allah).
43. And (all) that she was wont to worship instead of Allah hindered her, for she came of disbelieving folk.
44. It was said unto her: Enter the hall. And when she saw it she deemed it a pool and bared her legs. (Solomon) said: Lo! it is a hall, made smooth, of glass. She said: My Lord! Lo! I have wronged myself, and I surrender with Solomon unto Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.


To briefly sum up the above mentioned Quranic event:  Allah Almighty granted the ability to Prophet Solomon (pbuh) to understand the language of birds and ants.  There were also the jinn who worked for him.  The hoopoe (a bird) returned to Solomon with information of the Queen of Sheba, telling him that she and her community were disbelievers who worshiped the sun.  Solomon sent her a letter beginning in the name of Allah, inviting her to visit his land and to embrace Monotheism.  In reply, the queen of Sheba sent Prophet Solomon a gift with the intention of buying his friendship with a bribe which angered Solomon greatly.  He rejected the gift and sent her an ultimatum that she must either come humbly or face defeat by his army.  Before the queen arrived to meet Solomon, he ordered her throne to be brought to him so she could see it and reflect on the abilities for performing miracles which Allah is able to grant to His faithful slaves.   It cannot be confirmed who brought the throne, whether a jin or an angel. The Quran does not mention that.  In Solomon's palace there was also a hall made of exquisite glass that  looked like a pool of clear water.  On seeing all of this, the queen realized the Power of Allah Almighty and the favors He had bestowed on Prophet Solomon.  She immediately embraced Monotheism and submitted to The Almighty, The One and Only.  That's as much as the Quran mentions about the Queen of Sheba.   Nothing more.

Now let's confirm some important facts as follows:

- The Quran does not mention the name of this queen.

- The Quran never says that her name was "Bilqis."  This guesswork apparently comes from our heavily tainted Hadith institution.  The equally fraudulent non-Muslim story tellers (viz Jews of Ethiopia and the global Jewish community) have given her another invented name known as "Makeda."   We will discuss that at the end of this post, InshAllah.

- The Quran does not mention that the queen and Solomon were married as gossiped by some non-Muslim sources. 

- Quran definitely does NOT hint at a romantic relationship between them.

- The Quran does not specify the geographical location of Sheba.

All of the above are confirmed which you can check for yourself from the Verses quoted.

Traditional Hadith followers assert that all kings of Yemen were called  "Tubba" just as all kings of Egypt were called "Pharaoh."  I don't know how, but the same Hadithists have also presumed that Sheba was situated in Yemen or southern Arabia and the kings of Sheba  were called Tubba.   Contrary to all of this, the Quran mentions the term "Tubba" only once in Surah Al-Dukhan, V.44:37, quote:  "Are they better or the people of Tubba' and those before them? We destroyed them, [for] indeed, they were criminals."  Corpus Quran explains Tubba as: "Tubba (تبع) are an ancient people" not the title of kings.  And again, there is no reference in the Quran where Tubba was situated.  The Quran also gives us no reason to presume of a connection between Sheba and Tubba, that all kings of Sheba were called Tubba.  This concept is not contained in the Quran.

Also, as you can read in the above Quranic quotes, the place "Sheba" is mentioned by name in Verse 27:22.    Thus, the Quran refers to the queen as residing at a place called Sheba but does not specify where exactly the community or township of Sheba was situated.

We do know that Saba has been translated as "Sheba" in Verse 27:22 (refer above), and also in another Surah, 34:15 which is named "Saba."  Quoting Pickthall's translation of Verse 34:15 - "There was indeed a sign for Sheba in their dwelling-place:"  The original Arabic mentions "kāna li saba-in fī  maskanihim āyatun."  Direct translation would be: "(there) was for Saba in their dwelling place a sign."   Again we do not know where precisely this place named Saba (or Sheba) was located.  The Quran does not disclose it.

Furthermore, all those claims by non-Muslims that Sheba or Saba was in present-day Ethiopia or Somalia are definitely blind presumptions completely unwarranted from the Quranic view point.

We are not asserting that this queen belonged neither to Yemen, nor to Ethiopia nor to Somalia.  She may have belonged to one of these places; and just as likely she belonged to neither of these three places but to some other land we cannot know because the Quran has not revealed that information.

Non-Muslims particularly of African origin often wrangle that she was originally from (what's today known as) Ethiopia or Somalia.   This notion may have crept from the altered Jewish or Christian scriptures, but far more likely it props from traditional Jewish folklore. 

There is also a notion floating around that "Bilqis" was a jin or half a jin.  Again the Quran does not say anything of the sort.  This story arises from some Hadith compilers and so-called exegesists or commentators of the Quran.  One of the persons who came up with this concoction was Ibn Kathir.  He mentioned that Balqis' father was a powerful and arrogant king. He declined to marry just about every woman in Yeman; he married a female jinn and they had a daughter named  "Balkis" which probably later acquired the pronunciation 'Bilqis.'  A slightly differing version comes from another story penned by a 13th century Imam, Abu Abdullah al-Qurtubi, claiming Bilqis' grandfather, Hudahud, was a great king and controlled the entire land of Yemen. He had 40 sons. All these sons became kings. Bilqis' father, Sirah, who apparently was supposed to be one of the 40 sons and a king, was a conceited man.  He didn't consider any woman good enough to be his wife.  So he decided to marry a 'lady jin'  who gave birth to Bilqis. 

 ~Sigh~  You can see the depth and extent of imagination running wild!  If you research the stories of the imams, you will likely come across at least half a dozen more versions with slight variations.  Briefly put, both Ibn Kathir and al-Qurtubi are full of extra-Quranic contents.  There's no way we an accept such unsupportive tales .. the same as the Jewish/Christian versions that need to be trashed.

In fact, if there is anything farther from the truth than Hadith, it's the Ethiopian myth about this queen supposedly called Bilqis.  Other than the mythological conjecture that she belonged to Ethiopia, a bizarre and funny fiction has been added to it that she had goat hooves rather than human feet.  Another unknown source of gossip comes up with a very laughable story about how Bilqis' got goat hooves.  It babbles that one day when Bilqis' mother was pregnant with her (she was apparently very hungry), she saw a goat and desired to cook and eat it.  Thenceforth, when her own daughter was born, the child had one normal foot and one goat's hoof.  So, it brings about two variations compared to the previous tale.  First, there's no mention of Bilqis being a jin as this gossip doesn't allude to her mother being a jin.  Secondly, it says that Bilqis had one goat hoof leg, not both.
~Yawn~ !!  LMFAO.

The other highly objectionable point we need to plainly state is that some ignorant and badass non-Muslim sources are circulating the back-bench talk that the story of "Bilqis" having hooves comes from the Quran.  The idiocy of these twits & twats needs to be thrown straight back at them with the categorical and confirmed statement that the Noble Quran does NOT convey any such ideas.  To find out the Quranic version, you only need to read Verses 20 to 44 of Surah 27 quoted at the beginning of this post.

The fables associated with "Bilqis" don't end here either.  The most abominable scandal mongering is carried out by the Jews.  Jewish rabbis or clerics (or whatever one may call them) have constructed a very disgusting falsification about "Bilqis" and Prophet Solomon similar to the erroneous and distorted story of "David and 'Bathsheba' " contrived by the altered Bibles. Only for the information of our readers, we will briefly go over the details of that offensive myth of "Bilqis" and Solomon, so you can recognize it if you read it elsewhere and reject it immediately.

According to Ethiopian traditional myth, Sheba or Saba was located in Ethiopia known as Shoa in ancient times situated in the same region as modern day Addis Ababa.  They claim that the Queen of Sheba belonged to this place and her name was Makeda. This is definitely a Jewish tale and I won't be surprised if it originated in the Jewish quarters of Ethiopia in recent times comparatively.  They have concocted a very dirty myth for which Allah Almighty will punish the low-life scums responsible for it, InshAllah.  The story lies by claiming Makeda with her entourage visited Jerusalem and stayed there for some months when Solomon fell in love with her.  Soon before she left Jerusalem, Solomon invited her to stay in his castle.  She said she would stay only if Solomon didn't make any romantic advances.  Solomon agreed on the condition that only if she didn't take anything from the castle that was a part of his property.   Solomon ordered a spicy meal to be cooked for dinner that evening and also had a glass of water placed by Makeda's bedside in her room.  After the spicy meal Makeda awoke thirsty in the middle of the night and drank the water.  Solomon soon came to the room and told her she had broken her promise by taking something that belonged  to him - the glass of water.  Consequently they spent the night together, and after Makeda returned to Ethiopia she gave birth to Solomon's "son."  This false and dirty tale is further stretched into claiming that this so-called illegitimate son of Makeda later became Ethiopia's emperor and founder of what the Ethiopians claim the "Solomonid dynasty" which continued all the way from the prehistoric era until Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed in 1974.  Limitless stupidity, nay raving madness!   This lie is even for far-fetched than the one hatched by the Saudi "royal" family and the Jordanian "royal" family claiming themselves to be the descendents of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh).   Substance-wise as well as ethnically, this vile story is one hundred percent un-Quranic and false.  Slandering anyone is a thoroughly un-Quranic stance. To slander a Prophet and messenger of Allah, as has been done by the shameless mischief mongers responsible for constructing this tale would undoubtedly carry dire consequences in the Hereafter.   InshAllah.

[Zainab_M]

Just look at the variety of lies by fable mongers.  A sick wow to that.  I knew this bit about queen of Sheba that has been cooked into many different recipes.  But this one about the lady named Makeda from Ethiopia visiting Jerusalem and the rest of blah blah is pulling a wicked fiction too far.  The nature of the hyperbole is unforgivable .. whoever is responsible for such gossip-mongering.

Though the Hadith stories are no less crazy than the ones from non-Muslim sources, at least on this issue hadith has not written vulgar lies by accusing a Prophet of such a degraded act of seducing a female guest though they've also written similar LIES about Prophet Muhammed.  All such liars deserve Hellfire, straightaway. 

So, regarding the useless tales and legends on queen of Saba - according to liars among Jews & Christians she was Makeda the Ethiopian who committed adultery with a Prophet.  According to the Hadithist she was from Yemen, her dynasty was called Tubba, she was a jin or half a jin with at least one goat hoof.   

LOL.  Let me take a deep breath and a few minutes to recover on learning of the depth of madness than can grip the minds of frivolous storytellers. 
 

The readers only need to know what's contained within Quranic Verses 27:20-44.  That's the ONLY original and fully reliable Divine information.  The Almighty, The Greatest, knows whom to choose as His messenger.  HE chooses those who recognize the indispensability of high morals and justice.  ALLAH never bestows the responsibility of His mission and the task of spreading His Message on someone who can stoop down to lust and adultery so easily. 

Let me add one more point.  Sheba is basically the term used in English translations.  It's actually "Saba."  The Quran states 'Saba' not 'Sheba' just as the Quran states "Essa" not Jesus, "Musa" not Moses etc. etc. And since the place name Sheba does not exist today, one can be quite sure that in ancient times it was in use and known only in the Middle Eastern world, might include portions of north and north-east African world.  But definitely in ancient era no one in the Europe knew of the place 'Saba.'  So in modern translations they write Sheba primarily taken from all the myths Christian and Jewish tale tellers have invented starting from medieval era or earlier.  This was a part of the same ongoing process of corrupting and exaggerating the information of the original Torah and Bible. But the exaggerations were so many and so much that many altered stories of the Old and New Testaments formed separate branches and emerged as independent stories in the trashcans of folklore.  This one about queen of sheba is one of them.

Thank you Sis Heba.  Wonderfully written and a great exposure of lies. You made it easier than ever for all those who follow the Quran only to perceive and separate truth from falsehood.  Alhumdulilah. 

[Ruhi_Rose]

I'm sure if answering-islam reads the abounding folklore of "Bilqees" they will be delighted and the next moment you'll find a ruckus in their fourth rate Islamophobe gossip mongering site claiming that the "Quran said Solomon fed a spiced meal to seduce 'sheba' ."  lol.  No shortage of demented buggers from medieval ages to what they call modern age. 

On reading that bit carefully, you know what?  The distortion is fairly modern.  One can sense it from the nature of its construction.  It's narrated in the same promiscuous style as the permissive Western lifestyle itself today.  This was not the social norm of people back in those days.  Even those who were morally loose didn't go about this way. It was either polygamous marriage of more than one wife; and in case physical intimacy without a formal marriage was only with female slaves about which the Quran imposed the law that it must be consensual.  That is, masters must not force slave girls to sexual intimacy against their will.  Needless to say, this was the Law of Allah in all times and it's totally impossible that Solomon (pbuh), a Prophet and a Messenger would violate it when the woman was neither his slave nor his wife.  What the wily storytellers are falsely accusing Prophet Solomon of is adultery (as they did to David) but in Solomon's case the liars go further accusing him of calculated adultery by coercing the woman which isn't too different from rape.  Such LIES are cooked and spiced only by those people who want to promote immorality in the society to suit themselves and they hope to use such lies as leverage.  In the process they slander the Prophets chosen and sent by Allah who were great men of exemplary characters. May God Almighty grant the mischief mongers the direst punishment.  Ameen.

[Zainab_M]

and in case physical intimacy without a formal marriage was only with female slaves about which the Quran imposed the law that it must be consensual.  That is, masters must not force slave girls to sexual intimacy against their will.  Needless to say, this was the Law of Allah in all times and it's totally impossible that Solomon (pbuh), a Prophet and a Messenger would violate it when the woman was neither his slave nor his wife.   

Exactly Sister Ruhi. And you know, many cursory and careless readers of translations end up thinking that 'Sheba' was the name of the queen.  Many don't even know that it's the name of the place she ruled, not her name.  It's funny to read these scandalous myths writing "Solomon and Sheba" as if Sheba was a woman.  Not to mention, Sheba wasn't even a place to be precise, it was Saba.

[Ruhi_Rose]

You're so right sister Zeynab, "Saba" is the real term.  Don't know how this "sheba" thing popped up.   Obviously it's the English contortion for some reason, to make it sound more glossy to their ears or more sensational.  Western story writers and phoney historians of the bibles have really blown it up into a scandalous issue with countless gossipy myths. Myths with variations connected with what they call "Solomon & Sheba" continue to appear on editorial columns of UK and US newspapers on weekend issues.  These myths are of the same false category as that of David & Bathsheba, except that the deceitful tale of Solomon & Sheba has more varieties produced by the pens of liars.

BTW note the similarity of the names emerging from the 2 lies - "Bathsheba" and "Sheba."  Phoof!   These westerners have some sort of misguided fantasy about the sound of the word "sheba."  It reminds them of some abstract medieval beauty.  Give it to the ass-hats of Hollywood/Bollywood and within a week there will be one hundred more tales claiming Solomon and 'Sheba' romanced via text messaging on their smart phones.

Similarly rest assured 101%, Bathsheba is a fictitious character.

[Zainab_M]

BTW note the similarity of the names emerging from the 2 lies - "Bathsheba" and "Sheba."  Phoof!   These westerners have some sort of misguided fantasy about the sound of the word "sheba."  It reminds them of some abstract medieval beauty. 

Well perceived.  They assign a fictitious lover to the father named 'Bathsheba' and another fictitious one 'Sheba' for the son, with the shortcut of labeling the woman with the name of her country as written in translations.

Give it to the ass-hats of Hollywood/Bollywood and within a week there will be one hundred more tales claiming Solomon and 'Sheba' romanced via text messaging on their smart phones.

Ahaa ha hah haaa  ...... they actually are quite capable to saying that, not as a joke but soberly, by giving some ludicrous spin coming from the heaped up evils in the minds of professional deceivers of the entertainment media looking for higher monetary profit.

Similarly rest assured 101%, Bathsheba is a fictitious character.

Absolutely, I don't for a moment accept that she was any real personality as portrayed.  'Bathsheba' isn't even an Arab nor a Hebrew name.  Such names were unknown back then.  And because the Hadith does not have any stories on "Bathsheba" so no Arabic versions of this name are available either. 
 

[Zainab_M]

Absolutely, I don't for a moment accept that she was any real personality as portrayed.  'Bathsheba' isn't even an Arab nor a Hebrew name.  Such names were unknown back then.  And because the Hadith does not have any stories on "Bathsheba" so no Arabic versions of this name are available either. 
 

Well, to add a bit more on my own quote, heavily altered hebrew bibles were actually the ones who started this lying legend and they named her "bat-seba" which in hebrew language means "daughter of an oath." However, we never hear of this name in the Jewish society, not now and neither before.  The Arabic translation, translating the meaning of her name is written as العهد القديم) بثشبع ). However, this is just a word by word translation.  There is no Arabic form of Bathsheba as a name such as we have Maryam for Mary, Sarai for Sarah, Hager for Hajara etc.

[Ruhi_Rose]

True Sister Zeynab.  That's a very good point.  Actually this name Bathsheba is now occasionally acquired here & there, from this myth of David and Bathsheba.  Like in Thomas Hardy's novel "Far from the Madding Crowd" he names the leading lady Bathsheba.  The idea behind the selection of that name was to give that character a sensational / glamorous touch as has always been the Western cultural approach to outwardly decorate women as objects of romance & lust only.  Thus they hold the view even today that while a man must be properly dressed in formal occasions, a woman exposing her nakedness is "art & beauty."  May the curse of Allah be on the corrupt minds of these shameless creatures who put the human race to shame.

Which reminds me, if you check the non-Muslim sites for stories on David and Bathsheba, including Wikipedia, well the contents carry the same old obnoxious stuff steadily exaggerated with time.  But if you look at the paintings of Bathsheba .... so vulgar!  It seems that according to the myth Bathsheba hated clothes.  In all pics she's naked when Jewish women in that era used to be highly conservative.  There are pictures showing Bathsheba naked even while receiving David's envoy who (according to the lying myth) was sent to her with some message from David.  David is of course portrayed by these sinful authors as some lustful Romeo not a Prophet.  Nowhere has the profession of lies and falsehood thrived as much as it has in the altered Bibles of both Jews and Christians and from that it has also crept into their political policies until today.

[Zainab_M]

Yeah sister, I've seen some of those terrible, terrible paintings.  Absolutely shameless.  Those illustrations amount to awful calumny of the medieval Jewish female society - an affront to them. 

Thus they hold the view even today that while a man must be properly dressed in formal occasions, a woman exposing her nakedness is "art & beauty."  May the curse of Allah be on the corrupt minds of these shameless creatures who put the human race to shame.

You observed it so right. This is exactly how they think.  I recall, about 5 or 6 years ago when I attended a lecture at one of the Islamic centers and non-Muslims were also allowed to attend ... it was followed by Q&A session. A non-Muslim guy, appeared to be European immigrant, asked why Muslims emphasize so much for women to cover, claiming that "curves" of a woman's body is a symbol of "beauty and sophistication" so it shouldn't be covered.

[Ruhi_Rose]

....  I recall, about 5 or 6 years ago when I attended a lecture at one of the Islamic centers and non-Muslims were also allowed to attend ... it was followed by Q&A session. A non-Muslim guy, appeared to be European immigrant, asked why Muslims emphasize so much for women to cover, claiming that "curves" of a woman's body is a symbol of "beauty and sophistication" so it shouldn't be covered.

   What a bugger coming from the lowest ebb of a stinking cesspool of fetid shit !!  What was the response of the imam and other attendees?

[Zainab_M]

None of the attendees took that question from the vile dunce seriously.  Everyone knew where he was coming from and it was useless talking to him.  The imam explained, since the question was put directly to him, saying that the Muslim culture has its own rules which have been highlighted in the Quran and the idea of looking upon nakedness - be it woman or man - as a sign of sophistication it unthinkable in our society.  The bugger didn't put any more questions after that as the get-together was about to close.

[Ruhi_Rose]

Hmmm ..  these are actually the type of Islamophobes who make plenty of mischief in the cyber world in all those networking sites including websites.

[Zainab_M]

Exactly ..

[Ruhi_Rose]

The real important gist of the topic is as you stated, quoting you:  "The readers only need to know what's contained within Quranic Verses 27:20-44.  That's the ONLY original and fully reliable Divine information.  The Almighty, The Greatest, knows whom to choose as His messenger.  HE chooses those who recognize the indispensability of high morals and justice.  ALLAH never bestows the responsibility of His mission and the task of spreading His Message on someone who can stoop down to lust and adultery so easily."

That's it.  One needs to look at nothing beyond this.  And Verses 20 to 44 of Surah An-Naml says it all.

[Zainab_M]

That's precisely it.  Once you permanently keep the Quran before you as the Sole Criterion, nothing else .. no amount of gossips will be relevant and nothing else can be half as reliable.  It's the easiest and most authentic approach of resolving every issue.