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About The Queen of Sheba: A Modern Rendering of the 1925 Edition (Unabridged)

For readers and listeners of Queen of Sheba books, King Solomon legends, Balkis and Bilqīs traditions, Makeda and the Kebra Nagast, Arabian Nights literature, biblical folklore, Islamic stories of Sulaymān, jinn mythology, Solomonic magic, sacred romance, and comparative mythology. The Queen of Sheba is a richly poetic retelling of the legendary encounter between Solomon and Balkis, drawn from Arabic folklore and presented in the English version by E. Powys Mathers from the work of Dr. J. C. Mardrus. In Saba, the ancient land of Yemen, Balkis reigns as a queen of beauty, mystery, youth, sovereignty, and wisdom. Solomon, king of men and jinn, hears of her through the whispers of the winds and the report of the hoopoe. A tale then unfolds of royal longing, sacred messages, talismanic seals, riddles, enchanted birds, jinn, Ifrits, Marids, ritual invocations, and the charged meeting of two legendary powers. Presented as sacred folklore, the story is luminous, strange, symbolic, and morally charged. Balkis is ruler, strategist, tester, initiator, and sovereign. Solomon appears as prophet, magician, judge, lover, master of birds and winds, commander of jinn, keeper of hidden names, and bearer of dangerous power. Between them stands one of the great mythic questions of the Sheba-Solomon tradition: what happens when beauty, wisdom, desire, sacred authority, and royal power meet inside the same legend? This release includes additional materials by Dennis Logan, with a prefatory note and contextual appendix on Solomon, Sheba, Makeda, Bilqīs, Saba, sacred kingship, Jewish legend, Ethiopian tradition, Qur’anic storytelling, Arabic folklore, Solomonic mythology, and the long afterlife of the Sheba-Solomon story.