I will say more about this later, post pictures and the all thing.
I really enjoyed Ethiopia, thought I was only there for six days and it is not enough, not even close to being enough in fact, there is so much in Ethiopia. Instead of rushing about and seeing a little bit of everything and not really having the time to enjoy what was in front of me I took the time to explore Addis Ababa and just did three small trips outside Addis. But this is not what this post is about. I want to talk about Makeda, the Queen of Sheba. She was one of the reasons why I wanted to go to Ethiopia (other reasons being Lucy, the coffee, the jewelery, the art, the churches etc etc etc)
I bought myself a little book about the culture of Ethiopia ("Ethiopian Civilization" by Belai Giday). It is a good little book and I learnt a lot, but here I want to talk about Solomon and his behaviour towards the Queen of Sheba (note that in the book she is referred to as "the queen of Saba". She ruled over Ethiopia and Yemen, and Saba was her capital city). I found the story, that maybe you all already know, in this little book.
This is a picture of the Queen of Sheba visiting King Solomon of Israel (I found it at this website but there are many other sites).The part of the story I want to repeat here concerns the Queen of Sheba and how she ended up bearing Menelik, the son of Solomon (believed to have originally been "Ibn-al Malik" which means "son of the king").
Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, having heard of Solomons wisdom and being a farsighted queen always in pursuit of greater knowledge decided to go and visit him in Jerusalem. While she was visiting Solomon one evening Solomon with a particular design in mind had a great feast for her with a lot of spicy food and wine. At the end of the meal when it was time for the Queen of Sheba to go back to the palace she was using during her visit Solomon asked her to stay. She explained that she would only stay if he was to promise not to force himself upon her. Solomon agreed but on one condition. He told her that he would not force himself upon her BUT in exchange she would not take anything of his without first asking for it. And the Queen of Sheba agreed to it. So she stayed at his palace. They slept in separate beds but in the same room.
During the night, after a heavy meal of spicy and salty food, the queen woke up thirsty and helped herself of some water from a jar Solomon had had put at his bedside. Solomon who was not sleeping caught her arm and then reminded her of their agrement. He pointed out that since she had broken her part of the deal he was now free to break his part of it.
Menelik was born during her return home to Ethiopia, so obviously she did not leave the palace the following morning, this suggest to me that she was alright with the arrangement but I cannot help but think that Solomon who is reputed to be so wise and fair tricked her and behaved in a very bad way. So is this the kind of behaviour you would expect from a wise and fair king?
In his defense I will say that Ethiopian women are absolutely beautiful...but still....
