“Once upon a time there was a queen. She had it all: the glory, the power. Worshipers eager to
give and grateful to receive. Why? Because she had the gift of the gift. The blessing of blessings,
hers to bestow. And her place of worship? Oh, that was the place to be. It was good times.
Kings didn’t like that. Kings came one after the other to knock her off her throne.
They didn’t last long. When the queen was done with you, you were gone. Worse ways to go.
But the kings, they kept coming after her. Our queen’s power which is the power of all women,
the power of rebirth and creation, it makes some men kneel in awe and give gifts.
But it makes other men angry. And you know it: Anger gets stuff done.”
Or Nancy said something close to that about the character Bilquis in American Gods, and Bilquis
is known to most of history as the Queen of Sheba. The stories of the Queen of Sheba have undergone
extensive elaborations across different cultures, from the Jews, Islam, and Ethiopia, as time has
passed, and she has also become the subject of one of the most widespread and fertility legends
in the orient. But is she the character we see on American Gods, or is there more to her magic
than meets the eye? So welcome to the story of the Queen of Sheba, and welcome to Crecganford.
The Queen of Sheba has seen many myths and legends spawn from her reputation
as a beautiful, rich, and sometimes magical Queen. A Queen desired by Kings,
and this maybe the reason so many stories have been seeded about her.
And within the story of American gods we will look to see if many of these myths have been combined
to make the character of Bilquis, so let’s pull back the layers of these stories to see if we can
find out what her powers were, and the real story of the Queen of Sheba. The first and therefore
oldest mention of the Queen of Sheba her in the historical record is within the Hebrew bible,
where her name is never stated. She is mentioned with respect to her visit to King Solomon,
and this is written in the Book of Kings, and Chronicles II, where it is said she brought
with her with gold, precious stones, and an abundance of spices to give to the King.
Now King Solomon is said to have reigned from 970 BCE to 931 BCE, and so this provides our
first clue of when to look in history. But just because it is in the bible,
does not mean this event happened, or that there was even a Queen of Sheba, or even a King Solomon.
And to emphasise this we know that the books of Kings was written around the middle of the
6th century BCE, and Chronicles II was written in the 5th century BCE, and this is because of
the language used and the lack of mention of the fall of the Babylonian empire within those books.
Now, with the story of Sheba being written almost 500 years after her “appearance” there is bound to
be a little digression from the truth, as this is something we see in stories all of the time.
However, it is also said by Hebrew scholars that the Talmund, the Hebrew bible, when mentioning the
Queen of Sheba, it was referring to the land of Sheba, rather than an actual Queen. And so this
casts further doubt on her existence. But we do have some dates to help us track her down, and
clues to her kingdom’s resources. So with these clues, if there is an historical Queen of Sheba,
we shall look to find out where the Queen could have come from, as there are no
geographic clues to where Sheba is within the biblical writings, but it could be referring to a
real place. Well scholars generally identify Sheba as a real kingdom known as the Kingdom of Saba,
which is in modern day Yemen in Arabia, and centred around the oasis of Ma’rib.
The kingdom had fame for dealing in the Frankincense and Myrrh trade,
and this may have helped encourage the use of the phrase “an abundance of spices”
in the text of Chronicles, hinting at what could have been brought from the regionof Saba.
However, whilst the Kingdom of Saba had these resources it wasn’t until nearer the 8th century
that the stories mention Queen’s meets with King Solomon hint at. And so this leads us to our first
concern over whether the story could be true, or an amalgamation of facts and stories through time.
And to iterate this further, there are no written inscriptions from the South Arabia,
not in that region, of the Queen of Sheba, or in fact any female ruler. However,
to counter that there are many references to Arab queens from Assyrian inscriptions, and Queens are
well attested to in Arabia, but this attestation stops around the start of the 7th century BCE.
We are also aware that the Sabaean tribes used the title “mqtwyt” meaning high official, and this
seems cognate with Makueda, the personal name of the Queen of Sheba in the Ethiopian legends which
were written later on in history and we will visit those in a few minutes. But the link cannot be
proven for certain, nor associated with the Queen of Sheba specifically. However, even today, with
much excavation carried out at all sites in Yemen thought to be associated with the Queen of Sheba,
there have been no references to her found. So, whilst currently her historicity seems doubtful,
if we make a jump to the assumption that she was real, could the Queen of Sheba have visited King
Solomon at the time he ruled, whether or not she had the wealth associated with her? Well,
there are references to trade caravans of camels travelling to Mesopotamia from
Saba in the 9th century BCE, and maybe as early as the 10th century BCE, and this is probably
just on the edge of the possible timeline that a trade caravan could have also as well as gone to
Jerusalem. And so, if the Queen of Sheba was real she would have been born no later than 970 BCE,
and possibly as early as 990 BCE in order to be old enough to visit Solomon,
and for him to have an interest in her, and he had quite a significant interest in females.
So things don’t look too promising in believing the bible story, and perhaps it was
combining other myths or incidents to create the narrative of the story. But with what we do know,
we can look at the Kingdom of Saba in more detail. And people from this area were known as Sabaeans,
and we know that these people migrated to other areas in the region,
and some established settlements in the Ethiopian and Eritrean regions of Africa,
an area that would eventually become known as the realm of Aksum. And whilst, by land, the journey
between Yemen and Ethiopia is around 4,000 kilometres or 2,500 miles, by sea it was just
600 kilometres, or less than 400 miles. And this migration has been confirmed through DNA evidence
with around half the population of what was Aksum showing ancestry from Yemen. However, this kingdom
of Aksum didn’t actually exist as a political entity until the start of the 2nd century
CE, although it did evolve from the previous kingdom located there called D’mt which was also
influenced by the Sabaean culture just across the sea. Meaning once again the stories we are finding
out about seem to be a consolidation of many other tales and facts throughout time, brought together.
Now the kingdom of Aksum that has generated many of the myths of the Queen of Sheba,
and her stories still have huge significance in the area because of the belief by Ethiopian
Christians that the Queen was a real and powerful figure, despite what we know so far. So why was
this? Well it’s because of a book called the Kerba Nagast, which means Glory of the Kings,
and it is considered a national epic of Ethiopia written in the 14th century CE. The book, amongst
its many tales, tells the story of how the Queen of Sheba, who at the time worshipped the sun,
heard of King Solomon’s wisdom and went to visit him. The King’s wisdom convinced the
Queen to stop worshipping the sun and worship the God of Israel instead. And the night before the
Queen left to travel back to her kingdom, King Solomon tricks her into bed, and then in the
morning he gives her a ring to allow their child to identify themselves to Solomon in the future.
On her journey home the Queen of Sheba gives birth to a son, Menelik. Now 22 years later Menelik,
wearing his ring, travels to Jerusalem to seek King Solomon’s blessing, which the
King gives before trying to persuade Menelik to stay and become his heir.
But Menelik wants to go back home to Ethiopia, not Saba, and so King Solomon sends with Menelik,
the first born sons of his elders. These sons are not happy to leave their home and so steal the Ark
of the Covenant, a golden wooden casket holding the 10 commandments that God gave to Moses,
an incredibly sacred relic God gave to the Abrahamic church, and they take it with them,
without Menelik’s knowledge. But during his journey home Menelik finds out about the ark,
but before he can do anything about it, the ark flies him home to Ethiopia,
such is the power of YHWH. This makes King Solomon distraught, betrayed by god,
and in this frame of mind he is seduced by his wife, who is the daughter of the pharaoh of Egypt,
and she convinces Solomon to worship the gods of Egypt. Now, this story raises lots of questions,
such as why is Menelik travelling home to Ethiopia from Jerusalem,
rather than to Saba in Yemen as it infers in the Hebrew bible? Where the Queen of Sheba be expected
to come from? Is it Saba or Ethiopia? And what happened to the Ark of the Covenant,
if it is real, which it isn’t? Well there has been much archaeological work carried out
around what was the area of the Kingdom of Aksum, and this has uncovered Royal Seals and monuments.
However, none give mention to the Queen, or her son. And with such an impressive story of the
Queen and her son then even without this evidence why would your culture not want
to believe this is real, and I feel that is a belief that is preached to Ethiopian Chrsitians,
even today by the Ethiopian church. So with the Kebra Nagast considered historically accurate by
many Ethiopian Christians, it is just a small step to believe that the Ark of the Covenant is
actually in their possession, and this is the case, with it allegedly being located at the
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Now those academics who have been given access to it,
suggest that it’s a middle age forgery with nothing in it. But it may be too late to find out
formally, as in December of 2020, just over a month ago from this recording,
the Ethiopian army attacked the church, allegedly to seize the ark. And the outcome of this has not
been publicly verified at the time I record this video other than news outlets relaying
the danger the fighting poses on historical sites. But it could be that this is now lost forever. But
with regards to the story of the Queen of Sheba within the Kebra Nagast,
it seems to be about as reliable as the bible, especially considering when it was written,
and that it contains much influence from biblical books, and it itself is a copy of an older
translation, probably written in Coptic, then Arabic, before being translated into
Ge’ez by Ethiopian Clerics. There is also one other inconsistency and that
is the worshipping of the sun by the Queen of Sheba, you see the main deity of the Sabaean,
and one we have proof of through archaeological evidence, is the moon god called Almaqah.
A god that probably influenced not only in Saba, but potentially in D’mt and therefore
possibly Aksum. So why is the Queen seen as worshipping the sun rather than the moon? And so,
considering all this, we are no closer to finding any proof to support any belief that the Queen of
Sheba was real, or why she is portrayed as having magical powers in the American Gods.
Well, there are a couple more avenues I want to look at, and the first is of Islam,
where the Queen is mentioned in the Quran, and the story goes that Solomon, who used to worship
the sun, invited the Queen of Sheba to stop worshipping the sun, and instead, like King
Solomon, should start worshipping Allah. The Queen sends ambassadors to King Solomon bearing gifts,
to which he is disappointed and returns them saying that if he has to travel to her, to
convince her to change who she worships, he will bring an army she will not defeat. So the Queen,
not wishing to go to war, goes to visit King Solomon, a story in itself that has many versions,
involving Jinns (or Genies) and a miracle from Allah, as well as trickery to see if the Queen
had goat’s feet and hairy legs, by making her walk a floor of glass she thinks is water.
And this marvel of engineering convinces her to worship Allah. King Solomon then marries
the Queen, or, in other versions of the story, allows another King to marry her, and in other
tales she turns out to be the daughter of a Jinn, and so has some magical powers. This association
of the Queen with a Jinn or genie, which told in Islam’s Hadith or Islamic traddition, and is
considered by some scholars as an attempt to demonize her and reduce her reputation,
and as such is seen as a reflection of Islam’s attitude towards women. But the other influence
Islam has on her story is that her name is known within these texts as Bilquis within the Islamic
tradition, the name she is called within American Gods. However the thing that counters this is the
portrayal of Bilquis is of someone who has African heritage, not Persian or Arabian. So why is this?
Well, the background of Bilquis became a lot clearer in the storyline in American Gods,
come season 3 episode 4, and this is because whilst locked up in a cell she prayed and was
visited by a deity who is known as Oshun. Oshun is from the African pantheon known as Orisa
or Yoruba, a pantheon with 401 deities, its huge, that have commonality throughout the
region in Africa where they are worshipped. Because of the size of the pantheon and the
geographic spread of the worship of gods, many many gods can appear in different forms
and even different sexes amongst the stories, but here Oshun is the goddess of love, beauty,
and fertility, and one of the most popular deities in the Yoruba religion. Which is Nigeria,
or around there. So why is Oshun visiting Bilquis? Well one clan who worships her is called Ijebu,
and so this clan can be considered part of the Yoruba people. But they live in an
area in west Africa where there is a defensive structure, called Sungbo’s Eredo, is dedicated
to the Queen of Sheba, and that is the largest defensive structure ever built. And so there
is some worship and beliefs of her here too. Although her name is not Bilquis here, but Oloye
Bilikisu Sungbo. And the denesive structure was build around 800 CE to 1000 CE, so date wise,
so it doesn’t appears not to be built for the Queen or anywhere near her lifetime if she
was an historical person. So the influence here maybe form the Islamic religion and from the
Quran. And so with all this information I feel we can reach some sort of conclusion about Bilquis of
American Gods, and the documented Queen of Sheba. The character of Bilquis is undoubtedly influenced
primarily by the Islamic myths of the Queen of Sheba, along with the West African influence
she has. But the Queen of Sheba of Islam and Christianity, is a merger of based on truths and
myths at different points in the past, but which together form a myth that in itself has led to
many more stories, almost self-perpetuating these myths. But the biggest myth of all is that the
Queen of Sheba was a real and historical person, which we can say, with a high degree of certainty,
that she was not. And as Bilquis, she was only magical in specific stories that appeared 1,500
years after she was supposed to have lived, again enforcing the idea that myths evolved with the
times, giving her more powers and mystery as time evolved. And that is not uncommon trait amongst
national heros, and you see such development in characters such as King Arthur. American Gods
has used her many myths to create this character with a diverse and ancient past, but to summarise
the narrative of the Queen of Sheba, and this is a real synopsis. it is just another story of sex,
power, and politics that is a common one throughout the history of storytelling,
but one that has had the benefit of being spread far and wide and developed many forms. She is
an ideal character for storytelling.
And with that, and enjoyed what you heard, found it interesting, and learnt something new.
And until the next video please stay safe, stay well, take care, and this
was Crecganford.