The Koran then goes on to tell how Solomon sent her a letter, and she sent ambassadors to him, and finally asked one of his terrible jinn to bring her to him, throne and all, from Southwest Arabia. He did it in the twinkling of an eye, and after she saw Solomon and his glory she was converted to his religion! Although this latter story of the Queen of Sheba is evidently fabulous, there is no doubt that the Bible story is true, because recent explorers have visited the country of the Queen of Sheba and her old capital Marib, a short distance east of Sanaa, and have brought back inscriptions which tell of the ancient glory of her kingdom. In the Old Testament the Sabaeans lived in Sheba, and their caravans brought gold and precious stones and spices into distant lands. (See Job vi. 19; Ezek. xxvii. 22, and Psalm lxxii. 10.) On my first and second visit to Sanaa, the high mountain capital of all Yemen, I was privileged to look over into the borders of the country where the Queen of Sheba lived, and on the journey described in Chapter III I probably travelled from the coast by the same road which was used in the days of Solomon. It is not easy to build roads in so mountainous a country. Everywhere one can see the ruins of the old Himyarite civilization which flourished here from the time of Solomon until the Christian era. Some of the roads undoubtedly have been kept in repair ever since they were built along the mountainside by these early engineers. Stone bridges across torrent beds, tanks for holding water, and old castles with inscriptions in the strange language, still witness to the strength and vigour of this old empire. The accompanying picture is not that of the Queen of Sheba herself, but is undoubtedly that of a princess in the Sheba country. It was found among many, many other inscriptions and carvings in the land south of Marib, the old capital, where the famous dyke was built which was destroyed by a flood. When you study the picture, you will notice that the woman’s dress, with its ornaments and without a veil, the use of a throne, the carved pillars, and the page boys (or are they girls?) in waiting, are all so very different from the Arabia of to-day. The picture is also interesting when we remember how the early travellers and scientists who copied or brought back these famous inscriptions have confirmed the history of the Old Testament and its many references to South Arabia. One of them says: “The Queen of Sheba proved Solomon with hard questions, all of which in his wisdom he answered her. Now we who study the Old Testament, reversing the process, go to the wonderland of that queen with a multitude of inquiries, to many of which it has already given us a satisfactory reply.”