23 Preface إِنّي وَجَدتُ امرَأَةً تَملِكُهُم وَأوتِيَت مِن كُلِّ شَيءٍ وَلَها عَرشٌ عَظيمٌYusuf Ali“I found (there) a woman1 ruling over them and provided2 with every requisite; and she has a magnificent throne.The Queen of Sheba (by name Bilqis in Arabian tradition) came apparently from Yemen, but she had affinities with Abyssinia and possibly ruled over Abyssinia also. The (Habashah) tribe (after whom Abyssinia was named) came from Yemen. Between the southern coast of Yemen and the northeastern coast of Abyssinia there are only the Straits of Bab al Mandab, barely twenty miles across. In the 10th or 11 century B.C. there were frequent invasions of Abyssinia from Arabia, and Solomon’s reign of 40 years is usually synchronised with B.C. 992 to 952. The Sabæan and Himyarite alphabets in which we find the south Arabian pre-Islamic inscriptions, passed into Ethiopic, the language of Abyssinia. The Abyssinians possess a traditional history called “The Book of the Glory of Kings” (Kebra Negast). which has been translated from Ethiopic into English by Sir E.A. Wallis Budge (Oxford. 1932). It gives an account of the Queen of Sheba and her only son Menyelek I, as founders of the Abyssinian dynasty. (R).Provided with every requisite: I take this to refer not only to the abundance of spices and gems and gold in her country, but to sciences and arts, and perhaps the spiritual possibilities which made her accept the religion of Unity and Truth (27:44).