Who Is the Queen of Sheba?
The Queen of Sheba is one of the most vivid figures in the Quranic narrative, and the only reigning queen whose story the Quran tells at length. Her account unfolds in Surah al-Naml (“The Ant,” Quran 27), woven into the larger story of Nabi Sulayman (AS) — the prophet-king to whom Allah subjected the wind, the jinn, and the speech of birds (see Prophet Sulayman). She appears as the sovereign of Saba’ (Sheba), a wealthy realm in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, in the region of present-day Yemen, whose capital is traditionally identified with the ancient city of Marib.
It is important to state at the outset that the Quran itself does not name her. She is referred to throughout as “a woman ruling over them” (imra’atan tamlikuhum, 27:23) and simply as “the queen.” The name by which she is universally known — Bilqis (بلقيس) — comes from the later commentarial tradition rather than from the Quranic text. Classical exegetes such as al-Tabari, al-Zamakhshari and al-Baydawi record this name, and its origin is debated by scholars; some trace it to roots in earlier Semitic or Hellenistic languages. Because the name is traditional rather than scriptural, it is best understood as the inherited convention of the mufassirun (commentators) and not as a Quranic fact.
For the Dawoodi Bohra community — heirs of the Fatimid Tayyibi Ismaili tradition (see Bohra Madhab, Fatimid Caliphate) — her story is more than ancient history. It is read as a model of da’wa, the divine invitation, and as a lesson in the relationship between the zahir (outer appearance) and the batin (inner reality).
The Hoopoe’s Report
The narrative begins not with the queen but with a missing bird. Reviewing his ranks, Nabi Sulayman (AS) notices the absence of the hoopoe (al-hudhud) and resolves to hold it to account unless it brings a clear reason (27:20–21). The hoopoe soon returns with news of a land it has discovered:
“I have encompassed [in knowledge] that which you have not encompassed, and I have come to you from Saba’ with certain news. Indeed, I found a woman ruling them, and she has been given of all things, and she has a great throne.” (Quran 27:22–23)
The hoopoe reports a further, graver matter: the queen and her people prostrate to the sun instead of Allah, their worship adorned for them by Shaytan so that they are turned from the right path (27:24). The Quran’s description of her realm — abundant, prosperous, well-governed, and yet steeped in shirk (associating partners with Allah) — sets the spiritual stakes of the entire episode. Sulayman (AS) tests the bird’s truthfulness and entrusts it with a letter, telling it to deliver the message and observe the response (27:27–28).
In the Bohra devotional imagination, the hoopoe has become a beloved emblem of the faithful da’i or messenger: small in worldly terms yet swift, fearless before royal anger, and the bearer of intelligence that can change the course of a people’s destiny.
The Letter and the Refused Gifts
The letter Sulayman (AS) sends is one of the Quran’s clearest models of prophetic da’wa. The queen reads it aloud to her council:
“Indeed, it is from Sulayman, and indeed, it is [as follows]: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful — be not haughty toward me, but come to me in submission [as Muslims].” (Quran 27:30–31)
The message is brief, dignified and uncoerced: it opens with the Bismillah, names its sender honestly, and states its purpose plainly. Notably, this is among the rare places in the Quran where the Bismillah appears embedded within a surah rather than at its head — a detail Bohra teaching often highlights.
The queen’s response reveals her wisdom as a ruler. Rather than reacting with pride, she consults her chiefs, who remind her of their military strength but defer the decision to her (27:32–33). She observes that when kings enter a town they ruin it and humble its noblest people (27:34) — a statesmanlike reflection on the cost of war. She then tests Sulayman (AS) with a diplomatic gambit: she dispatches a gift, reasoning that a worldly king would be satisfied by tribute, while a true prophet would not (27:35).
Sulayman (AS) refuses the gift outright:
“Do you provide me with wealth? But what Allah has given me is better than what He has given you. Rather, it is you who rejoice in your gift.” (Quran 27:36)
His refusal demonstrates that the da’wa cannot be purchased and the prophet cannot be bought. The gift returns to her, and with it the clear understanding that the invitation stands.
The Throne Carried in an Instant
The queen now resolves to come herself. As she sets out, Sulayman (AS) asks his court who can bring her throne before she arrives (27:38). A powerful jinn (‘ifrit) offers to fetch it before Sulayman rises from his seat. But it is another — “the one who had knowledge from the Book” (alladhi ‘indahu ‘ilmun min al-Kitab) — who declares:
“I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you.” (Quran 27:40)
And in an instant the throne is set before him. In the Islamic commentarial tradition this figure is widely identified as Asaf ibn Barkhiya, the minister of Sulayman (AS); in Tayyibi Ismaili teaching he is understood as the Wasi (spiritual successor) of the prophet, the bearer of the inner knowledge of revelation (see Wasis Of The Prophets). Seeing the throne, Sulayman (AS) responds not with pride but with gratitude: “This is from the favour of my Lord” (27:40).
When the queen arrives, the throne is disguised to test her perception. Asked whether it resembles hers, she answers with measured insight: “It is as though it were it” (27:42) — neither denying nor naively affirming, the answer of a discerning mind. The Quran adds that she had already been granted knowledge before this, and that her former worship had kept her back (27:42–43).
The Palace of Glass and Her Submission
The final scene is the most intimate. The queen is invited to enter the sarh — a palace courtyard. Seeing its surface, she mistakes the smooth, transparent glass for a pool of water and bares her legs to wade across (27:44). Sulayman (AS) tells her it is a palace paved with polished glass.
This moment of mistaken perception becomes the turning point. The queen who once mistook the sun for a worthy object of worship now sees how easily the outer appearance of a thing can deceive — how zahir may conceal batin. Her response is immediate and complete:
“My Lord, indeed I have wronged myself, and I submit with Sulayman to Allah, Lord of the worlds.” (Quran 27:44)
Her submission is the prototype of a successful da’wa: a soul moved from shirk to tawhid not by compulsion but by demonstration and wisdom. Significantly, she submits with Sulayman — joining the community of believers rather than merely deferring to its king — and her acknowledgment that she had “wronged herself” models the honesty of true repentance over the self-justification of wounded pride.
Traditions About Her Identity
The Quran’s silence on the queen’s name, lineage and later life left room for a rich tradition of qisas (stories) and tafsir (commentary), and it is here that uncertainty is greatest. The community resource should hold these reports lightly, as inherited tradition rather than established fact.
- Her name. “Bilqis” is the standard name in the commentaries (al-Tabari, al-Zamakhshari, al-Baydawi and others), though it is absent from the Quran. Its etymology is disputed.
- Her parentage. Some genealogists, such as al-Hamdani, identify her as the daughter of a Sabaean king. A separate and widely cited body of tradition — reported among others by al-Tha’labi — holds that one of her parents was a jinn. These are conflicting traditional accounts, and the Quran affirms neither; they should be presented as part of the lore that grew around her, not as certainties.
- Her realm. The kingdom of Saba’ is securely attested historically as a major south-Arabian civilisation; the queen’s capital is traditionally placed at Marib, famed for its great dam. The Quran elsewhere recalls the people of Saba’ and the bursting of their dam (Surah Saba’, 34:15–17) as a warning against ingratitude, though that later episode is distinct from the queen’s own story.
- After her submission. Popular tradition relates that she married Sulayman (AS) or another ruler, but such details are not in the Quran and vary widely across sources. They are best treated as unverifiable embellishment.
The Tayyibi Reading and Its Lessons
For the Bohra mumin, the story of the Queen of Sheba is a compact lesson in the principles the Ismaili da’wa has carried across the centuries (see Dai Al Mutlaq Institution).
The recurring theme is the alignment of zahir and batin. The queen worshipped the sun — a radiant zahir mistaken for the divine reality. She mistook glass for water — again the surface deceiving the eye. Her journey is the journey of every seeker who must learn to see the inner truth beneath the outer form. The palace of glass is, in this reading, a pedagogical miracle: the visible used to reveal the truth about perception itself.
The episode also models da’wa with dignity, not coercion. Sulayman’s (AS) letter begins with the Bismillah, states the invitation clearly, and leaves the choice to the recipient. The refusal of the gift teaches that the call to truth cannot be bought; the disguised throne and the palace of glass teach that wisdom, not mere power, opens the heart.
Finally, the throne “carried before a glance returns” — performed by the one who possessed ‘ilm min al-Kitab — is read in Tayyibi thought as a sign of the extraordinary inner knowledge with which the Wasi is invested by divine grace. The queen’s throne, transported in an instant, becomes an image of the soul itself, capable of being carried in a single moment of ma’rifa (gnosis) from the realm of heedlessness into the realm of tawhid.
In the consciousness of the community, then, the Queen of Sheba is not merely a historical sovereign but a figure of transformation — the proud ruler who became a humble believer, the one who learned to see the batin within the zahir, and who, having tested a prophet and found him true, submitted “with Sulayman to Allah, Lord of the worlds.”