Over the centuries, Jewish and Muslim writers transformed the biblical Queen of Sheba from a clever, politically astute sovereign to a demonic force threatening the boundaries of gender. In this book, Jacob Lassner shows how successive retellings of the biblical story reveal anxieties about gender and illuminate the processes of cultural transmission. The Bible presents the Queen of Sheba's encounter with King Solomon as a diplomatic mission: the queen comes "to test him with hard questions," all of which he answers to her satisfaction; she then praises him and, after an exchange of gifts, returns to her own land. By the Middle Ages, Lassner demonstrates, the focus of the queen's visit had shifted from international to sexual politics. The queen was now portrayed as acting in open defiance of nature's equilibrium and God's design. In these retellings, the authors humbled the queen and thereby restored the world to its proper condition. Lassner also examines the Islamization of Jewish themes, using the dramatic accounts of Solomon and his female antagonist as a test case of how Jewish lore penetrated the literary imagination of Muslims. Demonizing the Queen of Sheba thus addresses not only specialists in Jewish and Islamic studies, but also those concerned with issues of cultural transmission and the role of gender in history.

The Queen of Sheba comes to Jerusalem to test King Solomon's wisdom. The king answers all her questions and reveals the splendor of his realm in this epic love story for children. Based on Biblical, Rabbinic and Ethiopian sources.

'An enthralling journey into an ancient world.' - Edoardo Albert, author of Edwin: High King of Britain A vividly-realized and beautifully crafted novel focused around the fabled meeting between Sheba and Solomon Against all odds Makeda, daughter of an obscure African chieftain, is chosen as Queen of all Sheba. Recognizing her own inexperience, yet desperately wanting to address Sheba's appalling social injustice, she is persuaded by her cousin Tamrin, wealthy merchant and narrator of the novel, to visit Solomon, King of Israel, to find out about how he governs his kingdom. She is hugely impressed by Israel's prosperity, by the wisdom and integrity with which Solomon rules, by the Hebrew religion, which she decides to adopt as her own, and by the justice for all that she determines to copy. However Solomon, who is trapped in a childless and loveless dynastic marriage with Pharaoh's daughter, allows himself to fall in love with the beautiful and intelligent African. He eventually tricks her into sleeping with him, and on the return journey to Sheba she discovers that she is pregnant. The son to whom she gives birth grows up in the court of Sheba, and eventually travels to Israel with Tamrin, to meet his father. But Solomon is a broken man, having put his doomed love for Makeda and need for an heir before his relationship with God. He has taken hundreds of wives and concubines in a fruitless attempt to recapture the love which he and Makeda shared. And Israel is no longer the nation of his youth . . . When the leader of the nation of God is apostate, where will the blessing fall?

A beautiful Ethiopian princess must use courage, strength, and leadership to conquer a dangerous enemy set on destroying the wealthy Kingdom of Sheba.Princess Makeda was born into a loving royal family but when her father, King Agabos, unexpectedly dies, the lives of Makeda and her mother, Queen Ismenie, are turned upside-down. Grief-stricken, yet angry for vengeance, Makeda must use her intelligence and resiliency to navigate a toxic, male-dominated hierarchy. With the odds stacked against her and her back against the wall, Makeda embarks on the deadliest mission of her life to restore honor and safety to the Kingdom of Sheba.This African Fantasy Epic is beautifully written and illustrated for both grade school children as well as fans of afrocentric anime, comics, and graphic novels. If you like historical fiction with a powerful black female hero, then you will love this ancient tale of courage and redemption. Buy Makeda the Queen of Sheba today to experience her incredible journey from young princess to legendary African queen.

Lost for centuries, the Kebra Nagast (The Glory of Kings) is a truly majestic unveiling of ancient secrets. These pages were excised by royal decree from the authorized 1611 King James version of the Bible. Originally recorded in the ancient Ethiopian language (Ge'ez) by anonymous scribes, The Red Sea Press, Inc. and Kingston Publishers now bring you a complete, accurate modern English translation of this long suppressed account. Here is the most startling and fascinating revelation of hidden truths; not only revealing the present location of the Ark of the Covenant, but also explaining fully many of the puzzling questions on Biblical topics which have remained unanswered up to today.

Inheriting her father's rich throne at a great personal loss, a new Queen of Sheba finds her nation's trade routes threatened by new alliances and undertakes a daring journey to win over a brash new king of Israel.

The Queen of Sheba has unparalleled power and wealth, but when King Solomon offers her the one thing her heart still desires, what will she risk to obtain it?