The hoopoe and the news of Saba / The throne of Balqis and the palace of glass

The hoopoe and the news of Saba

He inspected the birds and said: « Why do I not see the hoopoe? Or is he among the absent? I will surely punish him with a severe punishment, or I will slaughter him, or he brings me a clear authority. But he did not remain long, and said: I have encompassed in knowledge what you have not encompassed, and I have come to you from Saba with certain news.

I found a woman ruling over them, and she has been given of all things, and she has a great throne. I found her and her people prostrating to the sun instead of Allah, and the devil has adorned for them their deeds and barred them from the way: so they are not guided, that they not prostrate to Allah who brings forth the hidden in the heavens and the earth and knows what you conceal and what you declare: Allah, there is no deity but He: Lord of the Great Throne. He said: we shall see whether you have told the truth or are of the liars. Take this letter of mine and cast it to them, then turn away from them and see what they return.

She said: O assembly, an honorable letter has been cast to me. It is from Sulayman, and it is in the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy: do not rise above me, but come to me in submission. She said: O assembly, advise me in my affair: I was never one to decide an affair until you witness for me. They said: we possess strength and we possess great violence: but the command is yours: so look what you command.

She said: kings, when they enter a town, corrupt it and make the most honored of its people the most abased: and thus they do. And I am sending to them a gift, and seeing with what the messengers return. When Sulayman came [the messenger], he said: Would you provide me with wealth? What Allah has given me is better than what He has given you: rather, it is you who rejoice in your gift.

Return to them: we shall surely come to them with armies they have no power to face, and we shall drive them out from there, humbled and debased. »

The Most High mentions what occurred of the affair of Sulayman and the hoopoe. The birds had, for every kind of them, those appointed who performed what was asked of them, and attended him in turns, as is the habit of armies with kings. And the duty of the hoopoe, as Ibn Abbas and others mentioned: when they lacked water in the wastelands during journeys, he would come and look for them whether there was water in those regions: and he had, of the strength Allah the Most High deposited in him, the seeing of water beneath the crust of the earth: when he guided them to it, they dug for it and drew it out and brought it up, and used it for their need. When Sulayman (peace be upon him) summoned him one day: where is the one missing from among you, or who has vanished from my sight without my seeing him in my presence?

« I will surely punish him with a severe punishment »: he threatened him with a kind of punishment in which the exegetes have differed: and the point is attained in every case. « Or I will slaughter him, or he brings me a clear authority »: that is, a proof that saves him from this predicament. « But he did not remain long »: the hoopoe was absent a short absence, then returned from it and said to Sulayman: « I have encompassed in knowledge what you have not encompassed »: that is: I have come to know what you did not come to know, « of truthful news ».

« I found a woman ruling over them, and she has been given of all things, and she has a great throne. » He mentions what the kings of Saba were, in the land of the Yemen, of great dominion and crowned Tubba's: and the kingship had passed, in that time, to a woman among them, the daughter of their king, who left no heir but her: so they crowned her over them. At-Tha'alibi and others mentioned that her people crowned after her father a man: corruption spread through him: she wrote to him asking him in marriage, and married him: when she entered upon him, she gave him wine to drink, then cut off his head and set it upon her door: the people turned to her and crowned her over them. She is Balqis, daughter of al-Bachrakh, who is al-Hadhadh: Charahil ibn dhou Jadane ibn al-Bachrakh ibn al-Harith ibn Qays ibn Sayfi ibn Saba ibn Yachjoub ibn Ya'roub ibn Qahtan.

Her father was of the great kings: he had married a woman of the jinn, named Rayhana daughter of ach-Chakr: she bore this woman, Balqis. At-Tha'alibi related, by the route of Sa'id ibn Bachir, from Qatada, from an-Nadr ibn Anas, from Bachir ibn Nahik, from Abu Hurayra, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), that « one of the two parents of Balqis was of the jinn »: and this is a strange hadith, with weakness in its chain.

Abu Abdallah ibn Qahouna informed us: Abu Bakr ibn Jurja narrated to us: Ibn Abi al-Layth narrated to us: Abu Kourayb narrated to us: Abu Mou'awiya narrated to us, from Isma'il ibn Mouslim, from al-Hasan: Balqis was mentioned before the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): he said: « Never will a people succeed who make a woman their ruler. » Isma'il ibn Mouslim, he is al-Makki: weak.

It has been established in the Sahih of al-Bukhari, from the hadith of 'Awf, from al-Hasan, from Abu Bakra, that the messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), when it reached him that the people of Persia had made the daughter of Chosroes their ruler, said: « Never will a people succeed who make a woman their ruler. » At-Tirmidhi and an-Nasaï related it from the hadith of Humayd, from al-Hasan, from Abu Bakra, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): good and authentic. « And she has been given of all things »: of what makes the kings endow her. « And she has a great throne »: the seat of her kingdom, inlaid with all kinds of jewels, pearls, gold and resplendent ornaments. Then he mentions their disbelief in Allah and their worship of the sun instead of Allah: He who knows the secrets and the manifest, the sensed things and the realities: « Allah: there is no deity but He: Lord of the Great Throne »: to Him belongs the Great Throne, than which nothing among the creatures is greater.

Sulayman (peace be upon him) then sent with him his letter, containing his call to them to the obedience of Allah and His messenger: « Do not rise above me »: that is: do not grow arrogant against my obedience and the fulfilling of my commands, « and come to me in submission »: come to me hearing and obeying, without return or resistance. When the letter reached the queen with the bird: from that people took carrier pigeons: but where is the Pleiades relative to the dust? This letter was with a hearing, obedient bird, understanding, knowing what it says and what is said to it. More than one exegete and others mentioned that the hoopoe carried the letter, came to her palace, cast it to her while she was in her seclusion, then stood aside, awaiting what would come of her answer to the letter.

« It is from Sulayman », then she read it: « and it is in the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy: do not rise above me, and come to me in submission. » Then she consulted them about her affair and what had befallen her, with politeness toward them: « O assembly, advise me in my affair: I was never one to decide an affair until you witness for me »: meaning: I would never decide an affair but that you were present.

They said: « We possess strength and we possess great violence »: they meant: we have strength and power over fierceness and fighting and resisting heroes: if you want that of us, we are able for it; « but the command is yours: so look what you command »: they offered her hearing and obedience, informed her of what they had of ability, and entrusted to her that affair: that she might see in it what was best guided for her and for them: and her judgment was more complete and firmer than theirs: she knew that the possessor of this letter cannot be overcome, nor barred, nor opposed, nor deceived: « If this king should prevail over this dominion, the matter will not escape from among you except to me, and the intense fierceness and the penetrating assault will be only with me. And I am sending to them a gift, and seeing with what the messengers return.

» She wished to placate for herself and the people of her kingdom with the gift she would send and the presents she would dispatch, not knowing that Sulayman (peace be upon him) would not accept from them, in this situation, any diversion or justice: for they are disbelievers, and he and his armies are able over them: that is why, when [the messenger] came to Sulayman, he said: « Would you provide me with wealth? What Allah has given me is better than what He has given you: but it is you who rejoice in your gift. » Those gifts comprised great things, as the exegetes mentioned. Then he said to her messenger, and the delegation of Balqis that had arrived to him: « Return to them: we shall surely come to them with armies they have no power to face, and we shall drive them out from there, humbled and debased.

» He said: return with your gift, with which you came, to the one who deemed it a bounty: for I have with me, of what Allah has bestowed upon me and granted me of wealth, presents and men, what is manifold of this and better than this which you rejoice in and boast of before your kinsmen because of it. I shall send to them armies they cannot defend against, nor withstand, nor bar, nor fight, and I shall drive them out of their land, their domain, their administration and their state, humbled and debased: upon them abasement, disgrace and destruction. When that reached them from the prophet of Allah, they had no escape but hearing and obedience: so they hastened to answer him at that hour, and came all of them, in the company of the queen, hearing, obeying and submitting. When he heard of their coming to him and their arrival, he said to those before him of those subjugated to him of the jinn:

« O assembly, which of you will bring me her throne before they come to me in submission? An ifrit of the jinn said: I will bring it to you before you rise from your place: and I am strong for it, trustworthy. Said he who had knowledge of the Book: I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you. When he saw it settled before him, he said: this is from the favor of my Lord, to test me whether I am grateful or ungrateful: and whoever is grateful is grateful only for himself: and whoever disbelieves: my Lord is Rich, Noble.

He said: disguise her throne for her: we shall see whether she is guided, or is of those not guided. When she came, it was said: is this your throne? She said: it is as it were. And we were given knowledge before her, and we were in submission.

And what she worshipped besides Allah barred her: she was of a disbelieving people. It was said to her: enter the palace. When she saw it, she thought it a body of water, and uncovered her legs. He said: it is a palace smoothed of glass.

She said: my Lord, I have wronged myself, and I submit with Sulayman to Allah, Lord of the worlds. »

Surat an-Naml, 38-44

The throne of Balqis and the palace of glass

When Sulayman asked the jinn to bring him the throne of Balqis, which is the seat of her kingdom upon which she sat at the time of her judgment, before your session of judgment is concluded: the ifrit said: « I will bring it to you before you rise from your place: I am strong for it, trustworthy »: that is: I have strength to bring it to you, and trustworthiness regarding what is in it of precious jewels with you. « He who had knowledge of the Book »: the famous view is that he is Asif ibn Barkhiya: and he is the son of Sulayman's maternal aunt: he is a man of the believing jinn, who, as it is said, kept the Greatest Name; and it is said: a man of the Children of Israel, of their scholars; and it is said: he is Sulayman himself: and this is very strange: and as-Souhayli weakened it, in that it does not hold in the course of speech. And a fourth saying has been said about it: that he was Jibril.

« Before your glance returns to you » means: before you send a messenger to the farthest place your eye reaches, then it returns to you; before the farthest of people you see reaches you; before your glance wearies should you prolong looking; before your eyelid closes; before your glance returns to you when you look with it at the farthest reach from you then close it: and this is the nearest of what has been said. When he saw the throne of Balqis settled before him in this short span, from the land of the Yemen to Bayt al-Maqdis: « This is from the favor of Allah upon me and His favor upon His servants: to test them in gratitude or its contrary: the benefit of that returns only to me: Rich from the gratitude of the thankful, not harmed by the disbelief of the disbelievers. » Then Sulayman (peace be upon him) commanded that the ornament of this throne be changed and made unrecognizable to her: « Disguise it for her: we shall see whether she is guided, or is of those not guided. » When she came, it was said to her: is this your throne?

She said: it is as it were: and this was of her acuity and the abundance of her understanding: for she judged it improbable that it was her throne: since she had left it behind her in the land of the Yemen, and did not know that anyone was capable of this wondrous, strange feat.

« And we were given knowledge before her, and we were in submission. And what she worshipped besides Allah barred her: she was of a disbelieving people »: that is: the worship of the sun, before which she and her people prostrated instead of Allah, barred her, in imitation of the religion of their fathers and ancestors, with no proof leading them to that, nor guide directing them to it. Sulayman had commanded the building of a palace of glass, and had water flow in its passage, and placed above it a roof of glass, and put in it fish and other water creatures. The jinn wished to disturb her appearance before Sulayman, and that she uncover her legs, that he see what she had of hair: that would repel him from her; and they feared he would marry her: for her mother was of the jinn: she would then rule over them along with him.

Some mentioned that the hollow of her foot was like the hoof of a beast: and this is weak: and in the first view there is also scrutiny: and Allah knows best. When he wished to remove it, after resolving to marry her, he asked the humans about its removal: they mentioned to him certain practices: she refused that: he asked the jinn: they made for him the nura (the depilatory paste) and established for him the bath: and he was the first to enter the bath. At-Tabarani related it raised to the Prophet: and in it is scrutiny.

At-Tha'alibi and others mentioned that Sulayman, when he married her, established her over the kingdom of the Yemen and returned her to it: and he would visit her once every month: he would stay with her three days, then return upon the carpet: Ghoumdane, Salhine and Banyoune: and Allah knows better.

Ibn Ishaq related, from some people of knowledge, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, that Sulayman did not marry her: rather he married her to the king of Hamdan, established her over the kingdom of the Yemen, and subjugated Zoub'aba, king of the jinn of the Yemen: he built for her therefore the three palaces we mentioned in the Yemen: and the first is the most famous and most manifest: and Allah knows best.

The Most High said in sura Sad:

« And We gave to Dawud Sulayman: an excellent servant: indeed he was one who constantly turned back. When there were exhibited to him at evening the swift horses, he said: I loved the love of good over the remembrance of my Lord, until it was hidden behind the veil. Return it to me. And he began passing his hand over the legs and the necks.

And We had certainly tried Sulayman and placed upon his seat a body: then he turned back. He said: my Lord, forgive me, and grant me a dominion that does not befit anyone after me: You are the great Bestower. So We subjected to him the wind flowing by his command, gently, wherever it reached, and the devils, every builder and diver, and others, bound in fetters: This is Our gift: so bestow or withhold without account. And he has with Us indeed nearness and a good return.

»

Surat Sad, 30-40