SOLOMON’S SPLENDID LADY

Hokitika Guardian, 1 February 1929, Page 8

SOLOMON’S SPLENDID LADY

Yet another romance from the perfumed East. Reading of the recent discovery on Temple .Mount of the burial place and mummy of Moti Claris. King Solomon’s, favourite wife, and her supreme sacrifice for her iord and master, brings to mind the fascinating romance of another splendid lady he lo\ed of King Solomon. Splendid in. deed was this lady, but not self-sacri-ficing like the gentle .Moti. A rogue of a girl who kept Solomon guessing all the time. I refer to the alluring personality of the Queen of Sheba. Sheba, or Saba, was a portion of Arabia, a most fertile region which produced precious spices and aroused the greed of distant nations. Two tribes, the Salmons and Himyarites, succeeded to .supreme power in turn, and in the days of King Solomon the land was ruled by a girl queen ol the Salmons whose name was Jialkis. Some say she obtained her throne by slaying the king of the Himyarites; outers say that her mother was a spirit of the air. I’e that as it may, she was no negative personality, this, girl ol sixteen. “Of peerless beauty,” says the I dpt •id, ‘‘she was the flower of all Arabian flowers, her face was sorcery, her cheeks were the shame of tne roses, and when sho closed her antelope eyes the world grew dark before the faces of men.” When King Solomon heard tell of her he rubbed his talismaiiic ring and immediately winged armies carried him through the air until he floated above the glad mountains and laughing plains of Sheba. He wrote a letter to Jialkis bidding her cease worshipping the sun and come submit to Allah the Merciful, lie gave the letter to a hoopoe, for well lie knew the language of the birds. The hoopoe flew and laid it upon the breast of llalkis while she slept. When Ra Ik is read the letter she determined to test the wisdom of Solomon. S'ic ordered five hundred youths to he dressed in the robes of girls with bracelets. necklaces and earrings, 'I hey travelled in palanquins on dromedaries, Also five hundred laughing girls with I assassin eyebrows painted over their own and girt with warlike belts and sitting astride prancing Arab steeds I Were sent to King'Solomon uith gilts, i ' among which was a great pearl. A j human touch here, the jest of a merr\ | girl. One can imagine the great cain- | van wending its slow way through the i desert. The rich fringes of the pnlnn- | quins nodding and swaying to the gait i of the dromedaries, and the somewhat ! disgusted youths inside, the maidens in their borrowed plumes upon their splen- ! did horses, surely having the laugh on | them, hut a jolly party withal. . ?< i thousand happy hoys and girls out on a masquerade. Solomon was not even mystified, 'foi the little, bird lmd told him all. At olice lie discovered the sex of the living gifts by placing water before them: the boys washed their faces first, but the girls splashed water from hand to hand.' As for the pearl, the king said it was a symbol of the love of Tinlkis. ' Sarahil. Queen Jialkis’ messenger, amazed by such wisdom, called out. “Our dwellings are your dwellings: Jialkis is written in your destiny.” Hut King Solomon was cautious because “ lie feared lest the people of Sheba had hairy legs and the cleft feet of goats. So ho ordered a pavement of crystal bricks to he laid to the approach of his pavilion and pure water flowed beneath the bricks, so a visitor might appear to walk in water.” 'I bus Halkis arrived she feared the water and lifted her skirts, so the suspicions ol Solomon were dispelled. Then he led her to the mystic tents and they sat down side by side like two golden idols , on his throne. Thus she came, the girl ;of sixteen, tall and straight ns the r j cedars, came as the equal of the great j king. There is no mention of obeisance. I Jialkis came and took as her right—lkm majestv equal to his. After this came music and feasting, and King Solomon danced about his bride, and ‘<>r sake he forgot the queens and women of his household. Never afterwards did he desire any other woman. God gave her a son by Solomon fair ns the morn. Upon the fourteenth night «! Hamadan he was born, being tall. His name was Menehk. and he became the head and stream of the roval houses of Vemiii and Ethiopia. He was also the ancestor of the three kings. Gaspard, Melchior and Ihilthat, zar/the Majo who followed Ghnst > 'j Star to Bethlehem. *5 | Mimminrwroa™