After the death of Prophet Dawood (pbuh), Prophet Solomon (also called Prophet Sulayman) took over as the King in 970 BCE. At that time he was 20 years old. By way of expressing his gratitude to God, he addressed the people that he and his father Dawood were inspired by God with the knowledge of the language of the birds. Prophet Solomon was not only the heir of Prophet Dawood’s throne, but he inherited many divine attributes that were bestowed by God upon his father.  The hosts at the disposal of Prophet Solomon consisted of all varieties of God’s creations like birds, animals, beasts, ants, the spiritual beings  likee Jinn etc.

 Once Prophet Solomon was passing by a valley of ants. The sixth HolyImam Jafar As-Sadiq mentioned that the valley contained a huge deposits of invaluable metals like gold, silver and precious stones and providence had secured it by inhabiting in it an unimaginably huge host of some extra ordinary kind of ants on account of which none could approach the place on foot or riding any animals. The ants also said to be of an extra ordinary size. The chief of the ants saw the pomp and glory with which Prophet Solomon was approaching towards it, and sounded cautions to all of the ants in the valley to get in their holes lest they might be trampled down and crushed to death.

Prophet Solomon smiled at the caution taken by the ants and ordered his hosts to await the ants getting into their holes and to be careful against causing any hurt to the ants in their passing over the land. It is said that Prophet Solomon addressing the Chief of the ants said “ How could my hosts hurt thee and thy kind as they are passing in air and dost thou not know that I am the apostle of God and would never act inequitably?”  The Chief of the ants replied, “O” Apostle of God! “My cautioning my people was not for any hurt that they would suffer but to prevent them getting astray and forgetting the Glory of apostle of God after seeing thy pomp and show.”

Prophet Solomon with all his possessions and glory as the king ruling over a vast empire and having control of the hosts of the various creatures of God, used to fast the whole day  and used to eat loaves sitting with poor people.  It is reported that whenever Prophet Solomon went on a journey and fell in want of water for ablution for prayers, a bird  “Hudhud “ used to show the place of water, for it is an instinct in the bird that it could see water underground same way as one sees a liquid through a bottle.

 One day when Hudhud was flying to report himself to Prophet Solomon, he met another of its kind who asked him to which place he belonged. Hudhud replied,  to Solomon’s kingdom, and gave details of Solomon’s pomp and glory, and asked the other bird about his native place and he (the other bird) gave the details of the vast realm of Sheba (or Saba, a nation once lived in northern Ethopia and Eriteria) which was ruled by Bilquis, the Queen. Hudhud flew along with him to the land of Bilquis and having witnessed the greatness and glory of  the Queen Bilquis royal court. Hudhud returned to Solomon and reported to Solomon about the vast realm wich the Queen Bilquis ruled, the greatness of her wealth and glory of her court. Hudhud related all that he saw in Sheba about the Queen and people who worshipped the sun.

To test the above statements of Hudhud, Prophet Solomon wrote an epistle (letter) to the Queen of Sheba. The epistle was started with “Bismillah Hir Rahmanir Rahim” (see Holy Qur’an Sura 27:29, 30). Hudhud was asked to deliver it and to get a reply to it. The Queen receiving the epistle consulted her courtiers about the graceful communication she had received from Solomon. Prophet Solomon had invited the Queen and her people to embrace Islam and submit to God, against their submitting themselves to anything else.

The Queen decided to send some valuable presents to King Solomon and something to test his wisdom. If Solomon was only a king he would accept the presents and would not know the solution of the things of test.  If he be an apostle of  God, he would reject the gifts and declare the matter hidden in a problematic  things. She sent many invaluable gifts and along with them some slaves in the guise of women and some female attendants of her in garb of men. When the messanger from the Queen arrived in the Land of Solomon and found the greatness and glory of Solomon’s possessions and his court, compared to which the gifts he had brought for Solomon were worthless and insignificant, the messanger was struck with awe and wonder. Solomon rejected the gifts and made known to him all that was hidden in the matters of test sent by the Queen and replied to her that Solomon was proud of divine blessings and the power bestowed in him and not the temporal power and wordly possessions. Solomon ordered the Messanger to return to his Queen and inform her of his decision to march to Sheba with his unconquerable hosts.

The task that Prophet Solomon wanted to achieve was something  which ordinarily seemed to be impossible, i.e., the bringing of the Queen single-handed arresting her and presenting her with her throne itself.  The offer to do it was from a jinn who said he would do it before Solomon rises from his seat.  Solomon disperses his court and gets up and even with that, Solomon was not satisfied.

The Holy Qur’an (Surah 27: verse 40) describes the knowledge of the Book, – ‘The Word Of God”- could bring the Queen of Sheba with her throne from Sheba within the twinkling of the eye.  It is said that the Jinn knew the “Ism e Azam”, i.e., the Greatest Name of God, with which one can do and undo things impossible for others to achieve. And the one who offered to this was Asif-e-Bargiah, who presented the Queen of Sheba on her throne to Prophet Solomon (pbuh) within the twinkling of the eye.

While receiving the Queen, Solomon had made arrangements to disillusion her mind by an unbreakable argument an undeniable fact.  He had buit a palace of glass with a floor of glass, and under the sheet of glass, flowed water with fishes of various kinds. The floor seemed to be one tank of water since the glass sheet covering the water was made indistinguishable. When Queen arrived she had to pass through the court-yard with the glass sheet covering the water.  The Queen taking the glass sheet to be water, tucked up her clothes to pass through it, showing her bare feet and ankles. Solomon disillusioned her, telling her what it really was. The Queen felt graceful and joined Solomon in praise of God. By this device Solomon made the Queen realise the folly of getting misled by outward appearance and worshipping the objects like sun which is one of the creatures of God and not God Himself..

According to Ethopian narrations  (Wikipedia.com), Solomon treated the Queen very warmly, gave her numerous gifts and provided a palace for her dwelling.  Having been impressed by the graceful treatment and wisdom of Solomon, she decided to gi ve up worshipping of sun and gladly accepted Solomon’s religion.  After living a few days in the palace, she intended to  leave for her country. There was a big feast at the king’s palace in honor of the Queen. Next day Solomon gave her a very valuable ring  and many gifts when she left for her country.   Prophet Solomon had several wives including Pharaoh’s daughter Naamah. He had three children, the eldest son Rehoboam  became Solomon’s successor after his death. Solomon lived about 60 years and died in Jerusalam in 931 BCE.

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