“So the problem is simple. We may never determine which of you is the true mother, but we can see that justice is done. Bring me a sword.”
A hush went over the people that had crowded in the gate to see what the king would do. Yasmit looked defiant and Terra was obviously frightened. One of the guardsmen had stepped forward and offered the king his sword. “Take the child,” Solomon said, “divide it in half and give half to the one and half to the other.”
Yasmit glanced around the room with a cunning, speculative look. She obviously thought Solomon must be bluffing, and yet she quickly calculated that either way she would win. She cared nothing for the child. With a quick glance at Terra she raised her arms and handed the child to the guard. “That’s fair,” she said, “let the child be neither yours nor mine, but divide it.”
Terra swayed and almost fainted. A cry of anguish burst from her lips as she reached for the child. “No, no,” she cried. “Don’t harm him. Give her the child if you must, but don’t harm him.” She fell at the king’s feet weeping bitterly.
Gently Solomon reached down and lifted her up then turned to the guard. “Put up your sword,” he ordered. “Give this woman the child. It obviously belongs to her.”
Terra took the child and held it gently. She cuddled and crooned to it oblivious to anything that was happening around her. Yasmit, however, was angry. She didn’t dare dispute the king’s decision, but her eyes flashed dangerously and Badget could tell there would be no peace in his house.
He made a quick decision. Stepping forward he begged the king’s pardon and asked to speak. “Let it be known before the king and these witnesses,” he said, “that I’m divorcing this woman. She’s dealt treacherously in my house and brought disgrace upon it. I’ll settle upon her the amount due her from her former husband’s property, but she’ll no longer be a wife to me.”
Yasmit screamed and rushed forward but had to be restrained by the king’s guards. “Where am I to go? You can’t cast me out into the streets.”
Badget had spotted Yasmit’s sister in the crowd and now he motioned for her to come forward. “You’ll go with your sister and I’ll settle a fair amount on you so you’ll never be a burden to her.”
At that Yasmit broke down. She rushed forward and clung to Badget, begging for mercy, but he was determined to be free of her.
With a nod from the king the guards again came forward and led Yasmit outside the gate. Her sister came and carefully wrapped the dead baby in the winding cloth and carried it out while Badget, breathing a sigh of relief, hurried after Terra.
Within minutes the guard had closed the gates and the courtyard returned to normal. For a short time there was the sound of voices mixed with the braying of donkeys and the shouting of guards and then there was quiet. Solomon and the queen retired to their favorite place to talk on the latticed veranda.
For a while neither one spoke. They were busy rethinking all that had just happened. Finally Bilqis spoke. “I came all this way looking for truth. I have seen that you and all your people have no patience with the manipulations and games of expediency most of us play. You want the truth even if it isn’t convenient. It was interesting to see how you go about finding the truth.”
Solomon looked at Bilqis and noted the seriousness of her expression. He felt a renewed surge of love for this charming queen. How happy he would be to spend the rest of his life with her. He was terribly tempted to accept her on her terms. What did it matter now that he had been rejected by his father’s God? Why should he hold out on principle when she was all he wanted?
Finally the only thing that held him back was the realization that she was a determined woman and a queen. There was no way he could persuade her to stay here in Israel; nor was there any way that he could drop everything and go with her back to Sheba. There was nothing but heartbreak for him if he pursued this relationship. He decided that no matter how difficult it was going to be, he would spend less time with her and would guard his heart from loving her.
Despite his resolutions, Solomon found he could not tear himself away from the lovely queen, and she, in turn, talked less enthusiastically about going home. A week had passed, and though there had been a steady stream of messengers, pages, and tribesmen urging Solomon to return to Jerusalem, he still lingered in Jericho.
These had been strangely rewarding days in which Solomon tried to answer all the queen’s questions. Her questions never ceased to amaze him. She wanted to know about good and evil, sickness and health, life and death, but most of all she was curious about Israel’s God. “Is He just the God of Israel,” she asked, “or can He also be the God of the people of South Arabia?” They were sitting under one of the palm trees beside the blue-tiled fountain enjoying the sound of the water and the antics of Solomon’s playful monkey.
For a moment Solomon was taken aback. He had never thought of his God as being a God for other people. Finally he told her, “He is the creator God. He created the whole world so He is certainly the God of all He created.”
“Is He the strongest God?” she asked.
“He is the only God. All other gods are false. I’ve studied and learned the mysteries of many religions, and I’ve found their gods are either demons that work some magic or are the creation of false priests.”
As Solomon was answering her questions, an amazing thing began to happen. He found himself reviewing all the aspects of his own faith and discovered to his surprise that it was stronger than he’d thought. He wasn’t just telling her that this was the truth; he was believing it wholeheartedly. He was seeing it for the first time as one outside the faith would see it, and he found it withstood any test.
Though he was becoming used to her questions, at times she still surprised him. Her next question had that effect, and he hardly knew how to answer it.
“To become a citizen of my country,” she said, “a person has to be very wealthy. It’s quite costly. What must one do to accept your God as his God?”
He saw how her eyes shone with excitement and with what concentration she waited for his answer. “Enter into the covenant,” Solomon said at last, rather matter-of-factly, hoping that would satisfy her curiosity. He didn’t want to have to explain the whole idea of covenant. When he saw that she was going to ask more questions, he added, “Israel has made a covenant with Him. He is our God and we are His people.”
“Covenant! What is covenant?”
“It’s an agreement. We agree to accept His laws. He becomes our God and we become His people. It means we belong.”
And so it went for several days until one day she announced that she was ready to enter into covenant with Israel’s God. Solomon told her all that she must do, and then he said, “Is it so much easier to enter a covenant with my God than it is to enter a covenant with me?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The marriage I spoke of that seemed to frighten you so was just another way of making a covenant together. A belonging.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s very simple. Even though you must go back to your country and I must stay here, we would know that we belonged to each other.”
She thought about it for a few minutes. “And if I belong to you will that mean you will control me?”
Solomon could see that this bothered her. She was a beautiful, sensuous woman and yet she was first of all a queen responsible for a whole country and its people just as he was king. The times when he had reached out for her hand or had in any way tried to show the love that he felt for her, he found her drawing back with a frightened look and a reserve that kept him at a distance. “I don’t want to control you,” he said finally. “I only want to love you.”
“I don’t know about love,” she said. “I don’t know what it means.”
“You’ve never loved anyone?”
“Never,” she said looking at him with her characteristic openness.
“Don’t you want to be loved?”
She brok
e into a light laugh, as though she were amused. “I really don’t see that I need it. I’ve found it rather bothersome to have people wanting to love me. It has only meant they wanted somehow to control me or get my throne.”
Solomon was frustrated. He had never seen such a woman. Those that he’d known were all cloyingly eager to please him. They wanted his love and his attention. “Why did you come so far? What were you looking for? What have you wanted from me?” he said finally in exasperation.
“I wanted to find truth. I wanted to know things.”
“What did you think I could tell you?”
“If you were truly the wisest man in the world, I knew you could answer my questions; tell me what was true and important.”
For a long time Solomon didn’t answer. He knew her questions were important, but he could see that even with her questions answered she would still feel the emptiness that had brought her to him. It was obvious she knew nothing of the emotions. She had shut them out, covered them up with intellect. She felt nothing, perhaps was incapable of feeling anything.
“I’ve tried to answer your questions,” he said finally. “Have I answered them all?”
Her eyes sparkled and her face became animated. “Yes, yes, you’ve answered all my questions. I’ve learned what truth is and I’ve seen your wisdom.”
“But I’ve not yet told you what is most important, and you said you came seeking to know what was true and important. Are you interested?”
“Oh yes,” she said. “To know what the wisest man in the world thinks is important would be worth the whole journey.”
“Well,” he said, “I’m going tomorrow to Jerusalem. There are matters I must tend to, but when I come back I promise that I’ll tell you what the most important thing in the world is.”
It was late, the moon had gone down, and the crickets out in the garden were at last silent. Solomon stood up and waited for her before he said goodnight, then they followed the servants to their rooms.
The queen dropped off to sleep immediately, but Solomon was awake most of the night reviewing all that had happened since her arrival. He recalled the anxiety he had felt when he first heard of her coming. He almost laughed as he remembered Badget’s tale of her donkey feet. He would always be amazed that she had actually traveled so far seeking truth. Then finally he had been forced to admit to himself that he loved this woman deeply. He was also aware, however, that there was little hope of her returning his love. She was as remote as the evening star and perfectly happy to stay that way.
In Jerusalem Solomon was immediately plunged into urgent business. But he realized with surprise that during his stay in Jericho some of the problems that had rested heaviest on his mind had temporarily vanished. Jeroboam, he found, was indeed in Egypt, and Tipti had for the time being moved to her palace in Gezer. Naamah was content. She was convinced that with Jeroboam gone her son, Rehoboam, would have no trouble taking over the kingdom when the time came.
As to the coalition that had been formed against him and was such an ominous threat, it had now collapsed. The leaders had been informed that their plans had all fallen through. The queen had accepted the God of Israel as her God. Her high priest and some of her tribesmen were studying with Nathan. An agreement of cooperation was already being drawn up between the two countries, Israel and Sheba.
Solomon was pleased and relieved with all that had been accomplished, but he was frustrated beyond belief by the queen’s refusal to marry him. He knew that there was little time left. She would be making plans very soon for her return trip. He could accept that with difficulty, but to think that their relationship had never blossomed into anything more than lessons in wisdom was, in his estimation, intolerable.
Late that night Solomon was still up talking to Nathan and some of the tribesmen about their progress in drawing up an agreement with the dignitaries from Sheba. Nathan had explained all that he had learned of their beliefs and the temple built to the moon god. He reported that both their superstitions and their wisdom regarding the stars had been recorded. They in turn had been open and receptive to all that he was teaching them about the God of Israel and the law.
Solomon had listened with rapt attention. He was becoming more convinced that somewhere within the queen’s past was an unpleasant incident that had made her fearful of love. Perhaps it was somehow linked to the rejection of her own religion and the search for the truth. “Every man has a key and undoubtedly it is also true of every woman,” he said. “One has only to find the key, and any problem can be solved.”
“And the key, what is this key?” Nathan asked.
“Every person has something they either fear or want. When you discover either of these you can unlock the heart and there are no more problems.”
“And so what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Nathan left and Solomon sat thinking; he was reluctant to retire until he had come to some resolution. Slowly an idea began to form. It was an exciting idea. Impulsively he motioned to one of the pages. “Go to the house of Badget the trader,” he ordered, “and if he is still at home bring him here immediately.” It was obvious the page had been bored and was eager to be sent on some errand. He bowed, backed from the room, and hurried out into the night.
There was the familiar challenge from the guards, muffled voices, then the sound of feet hitting hard on the marble steps. Still more faint on the night air was the challenge from guards stationed in the courtyard, and then the palace gate. Solomon loved these sounds, sounds that were lost during the day.
A wind had sprung up, making the silken hangings billow slightly and the goathair ceiling rise and fall. The oil lamps sputtered and flickered, the incense burners gave off intermittent twists of perfumed smoke. The wind would in a few months bring the early rains signaling that the monsoons would be blowing to the southeast, and Solomon knew the queen must soon be leaving. It all served again to remind him of the shortness of the time that was left. Quickly he dismissed the thought as too painful.
He deliberately shifted his thoughts to the trader, with the hope that he could shed some light on the situation. “That wily trader owes me a great deal for bringing peace to his house,” Solomon muttered.
Badget came in such a hurry that he was still adjusting his outer robe and had forgotten his ornate girdle. At first he listened carefully to the king’s questions all the time nodding and smiling. Then he became impatient. He could hardly wait to tell all he knew of the situation in Sheba. Finally, before Solomon had asked all his questions, Badget began to tell him in detail of the queen’s refusal of one suitor after another. How even her cousin had been rejected. Then how at last there had been news that she was going to the temple to meet with the god Ilumquh. The god was to be her only husband.
“And why,” Solomon asked, “was it so necessary that she have a husband?”
“The people were demanding an heir to the throne. They cared very little whether she had a husband or not, but they insisted she must have an heir.”
“And so?”
“We heard of special diets, rituals, and purifications the queen was having to endure if she was to meet the god.”
“And this god she was to meet—who was he?” Badget laughed. “He’s the moon god. His presence on earth takes the form of an alabaster bull that lives in a special pavilion beside the larger temple. It was odd. I told people myself that neither an alabaster bull nor the moon itself could give the queen the son she wanted.”
“They believed she would have a son by this god?”
“They believed it. With my own eyes I saw the queen enter the small temple.”
“She actually went to meet this god?”
“She actually went. The people were terrified. They thought the bull god might tear her to pieces.”
“Was she frightened?”
“She didn’t seem to be, but then who knows, she may have been terrified and just didn’t show it. She’s well known for her brav
ery. Then again the priests may have given her a potion they call ergot. It makes ordinary people dream of gods and demons. It can also make them lose their wits. With my own eyes I’ve seen some of them.”
“What came of all this? Did the queen have a son?”
“Oh no, my lord. It seemed to me she wasn’t in the temple long before she reappeared, looking upset. She didn’t speak to anyone but gave orders to be taken right back to the palace. She didn’t even appear in the temple where the people were waiting for her.”
“Did she say anything to her people?”
“No, it was all very strange. It was after that she suddenly decided on this trip. Said she was coming to ask you questions. She wanted to find the truth.”
Solomon thanked Badget and dismissed the tribesmen, leaving only the harpist and some guards. He didn’t want to be bothered. He wanted to think. Badget had told him enough. He could well imagine the rest. He had often heard of the dark, shady practices of pagan priests.
It was painful to think of this woman he loved so deeply, who was so brave and trusting, being put through such an ordeal. Now he understood everything. Her consuming interest in Israel’s God, and her reluctance to respond to the love he knew she felt for him. The coalition meant little to her, the fact that he was bypassing her country’s trade route for a water route was important but wouldn’t have driven her to take off on such a perilous and arduous journey.
He had the key. Now all that was left was to find out how best to use all that he knew. It was obvious why she feared any kind of commitment, and it was also obvious that above all else she wanted a child. “Without an heir to her throne she’ll always have the priests and her people troubling her to marry.”
Queen of Sheba Page 25
