/ Babalon, The Queen of Sheba /
.
Her seductive features include her hair, which is red as a rose, and her face, which is white and red. In her ears there are six earrings of Egyptian fabric.
On her neck hang all the powers of Eastern lands. Her mouth is decorated by a small slit of a comely shape; her tongue is sharp as a sword; her speech as smooth as oil; and her lips as beautiful and red as a rose.
Wearing purple and having forty decorations less one, she is sweeter than all that is sweet in the world.
תקונין דילה, לפתאה לבני נשא: שערהא מתקנין סומקן כוורדא, אנפהא חוורין וסומקין, באודנהא תליין שיתא תקונין אטונא דמצרים, תליין על קדלהא כל חילי דארעא דקדם, פיה מתתקנא בפתיחו דקיק יאה בתקונהא, לישנא חדידא כחרבא, שעיען מלהא כמשחא, שפווהא יאן סומקין כוורדא, מתיקו בכל מתיקו דעלמא, ארגוונא לבשת, אתתקנת בארבעין תקונין, חסר חד
”Zohar”, Volume V
.
Bilquis is one of the Old Gods. She is the mother goddess of love and the Biblical Queen of Sheba (Malchat Shibah, מלכת שבא). Legendary Queen of Sheba who ruled the city of Ma’rib (مَأْرِب) in Yemen thousands of years ago where she was worshipped by her people in nocturcal rituals of orgiastic nature, a figure first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh, תנ״ך). The tale of her visit to King Solomon (Shlomoh, שלמה) has undergone extensive Jewish, Islamic, and Ethiopian elaborations, and has become the subject of one of the most widespread and fertile cycles in the Orient.
The queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem “with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones” (I Kings 10:2). “Never again came such an abundance of spices” (10:10; II Chron. 9:1–9) as those she gave to Solomon. She came “to prove him with hard questions“, which Solomon answered to her satisfaction. They exchanged gifts, after which she returned to her land. According to Josephus (Yosef ben Matityahu, יוסף בן מתתיהו) the queen of Sheba was the queen of Egypt and Ethiopia, and brought to Israel (ישראל) the first specimens of the balsam, which grew in the Holy Land (Aretz Ha’Kodesh, ארץ הקודש) in the historian’s time. Josephus represents Cambyses as conquering the capital of Aethiopia, and changing its name from Seba to Meroe. The ”Talmud” (תלמוד) insists that it was not a woman, but a kingdom of Sheba that came to Jerusalem (ירושלים), intended to discredit existing stories about the relations between Solomon and the Queen.
Baba Bathra 15b:
Whoever says malkath Sheba means a woman is mistaken;
It means the kingdom (מלכת) of Sheba.
Solomon commanded the Queen of Sheba to come to him as a subject, whereupon she appeared before him. It is mentioned that the distance from the locality of Sulayman’s palace to the residence of Bilqis was seventy farsakh (الفرسخ):
והמלך שלמה נתן למלכת שבא את כל חפצה אשר שאלה
מלבד אשרהביאה אל המלך ותהפך ותלך לארצה היא ועבדיה
And king Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked,
beside that which she had brought unto the king. So she turned, and went to her own land, she and her servants.
Muslim commentators such as Al-Tabari (محمد بن جرير الطبري), Al-Zamakhshari (الزمخشري) and Al-Baydawi (عبد الله بن عمر البيضاوي) supplement the story at various points. The Queen’s name is given as Bilqīs (بلقيس), probably derived from Greek pallakis (παλλακίς), or the Hebraised pilegesh, “concubine“.
According to some he then married the Queen, while other traditions assert that he gave her in marriage to a tubba of Hamdan.
According to the Islamic tradition as represented by Al-Hamdani (أبو محمد الهمداني), the queen of Sheba was the daughter of Ilsharah Yahdib, the Himyarite king of Najran.
In the Quran (القرآن), the story is essentially similar to the Bible and other Jewish sources.
Bilquisss! Beloved.
I worship your breasts and your eyes, and your cunt, and I worship your thighs and your eyes, and your cherry red lips.
Ohh, Daughter of the South. Stone Queen on the throne of honey. Secret owner of all gold.
I am your’s, my beloved Bilquis.
I bow my head before you and worship you!
