The Queen of Sheba is a figure first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. In the original story, she brings a caravan of valuable gifts for the Israelite King Solomon. This account has undergone extensive Jewish, Islamic, Yemenite and Ethiopian elaborations, and it has become the subject of one of the most widespread and fertile cycles of legends in Asia and Africa.
An illustration of the Queen of Sheba
Queen of Sheba and Solomon, around 1280, window now in Cologne Cathedral, Germany
King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, from The History of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca
The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, Claude Lorrain (1600‒1682), oil on canvas
Geʽez is an ancient South Semitic language. The language originates from what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Ezana stone, written in Ge'ez explaining his conquests and accomplishments
Genesis 29.11–16 in Geʽez
Example of Geʽez taken from a 15th-century Ethiopian Coptic prayer book
The Ezana Stone, engraved from AD 330 to 356, is written in ancient Ge'ez, Sabaean and Greek.