Sheba

Related Category: Biblical Proper Names: Biographies

(shē´bə). 1 In the Bible, rebel against David. 2 Queen of Sheba, who according the the Bible visited Solomon after hearing about the fame of his wisdom. In Arabic legend, Solomon and the queen, called Bilqis or Balkis, married. The Ethiopian royal line claimed descent from this union; the legendary Ethiopian king Menelik is said to be the son of Solomon and Makeda, as the queen was called. The queen is a figure in the Bible, the Qur'an, and the Kebra Nagast, Ethiopia's national epic.

See N. Clapp, Sheba: Through the Desert in Search of the Legendary Queen (2001).