Think you know the Queen of Sheba? Take this multiple choice exam to find out!
Be careful! An ANSWER SHEET is posted immediately below the quiz.
Note: there may be multiple answers for each question.
Note: there may be multiple answers for each question.
Queen of Sheba-ish Quiz
A) Besides her famous encounter with Solomon found in the Old Testament, the Queen of Sheba appears in:
- The New Testament
- The Qur'an
- Ethiopian traditions
- Kenyan and Nigerian traditions
- All of the Above
B) Sheba is located in:
- Modern day Ethiopia
- Modern day Yemen
- Egypt
- wherever the Garden of Eden is
- the South
- Bilqis
- Makeda
- Nicaule
- Oloye Bilikisu Sungbo
- Sheba
- Nakuti
- She probably doesn't have a name
D) The Queen of Sheba came to King Solomon to:
- Ask him a bunch of questions
- Get Impregnated
- Steal the Ark of the Covenant
- Worship Allah
E) Some Christian interpreters see the Queen of Sheba as a foreshadowing:
- Of the Virgin Mary
- Of the Three Wise Men
- Of the marriage between Christ and the Church
- For the Grafting in of Gentile nations as God's chosen people
- All of the above
- None of the above
F) King Solomon:
- Raped the Queen
- Gave the Queen the Ark of the Covenant
- Steals the Queen's throne
- Convinces the Queen to worship the one true God
- All of the Above
- None of the Above
G) The Queen of Sheba is prophesied to:
- Stand in judgment over a particular generation of people
- Be given a place of honor alongside Balaam
- Hand out the mark of the beast to the people; 666
- Return to the Ark of the Covenant to worship God
- Remain dead forever
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Answer Key
Correct Answers in Red
Reference Note: most of the information I have came from this page:
and, of course, wikipedia.
A) Besides her famous encounter with Solomon found in the Old Testament, the Queen of Sheba appears in:
- The New Testament
- Jesus talks about "the Queen of the South" visiting Solomon in Matthew 12:42 and Luke 11:31
- The Qur'an
- As is the case many times with the Qur'an, stories from the Bible are retold/retooled. The Queen of Sheba is no exception.
- Ethiopian traditions
- The Ethiopians trace their lineage supposedly back to the Queen of Sheba. They call her the ancestor of the "Solomonic dynasty", which was the first line of Kings of the Ethiopian empire which showed up around the 14th century… leaving roughly 2400 years between the Queen and her kingly descendants.
- Kenyan and Nigerian traditions
- Yep. Both cultures have their own name for her.
- All of the Above
B) Sheba is located in:
- Modern day Ethiopia
- Modern day Yemen
- Egypt
- wherever the Garden of Eden is
- the South
- While the Ethiopians surely would be mad at me for denying their heritage, there appears to be no direct archeological-historical link between the Queen and the people that claim her. Meanwhile muslims tend to favor Yemen as her native soil. This isn't too unreasonable, in that Ethiopia and Yemen are separated by only 25 kilometers. Since the Queen comes to Israel from the South, it's been postulated that she must have come from some place within Egypt… but again, there just isn't any strong evidence there to make that leap. As for the Garden of Eden, I just threw it in there because the simple fact of the matter is that not unlike Eden, we have no real idea where Sheba is. That's why I'll stick with Jesus' words. Rather than refer to her as the Queen of Sheba, Jesus merely calls her the Queen of the South. So I'm going to go on a limb and say that Sheba is South of Israel.
C) The Queen of Sheba's real name is:
- Bilqis
- the Queen's name as it appears in the Qur'an
- Makeda
- her Ethiopian name
- Nicaule
- the name 1st century historian Josephus called her
- Oloye Bilikisu Sungbo
- her Nigerian name.
- Sheba
- Genesis 10:7 lists a man name Sheba as a descendant of Ham… but whoever he was, he wasn't the Queen who visited Solomon. So, tough luck, you're wrong!
- Nakuti
- her Kenyan name
- She probably doesn't have a name
- Nah! Everybody has a name, Silly! See what I did there? I named you Silly, thus proving my point that everyone has a name.
D) The Queen of Sheba came to King Solomon to:
- Ask him a bunch of questions
- This seems to be the one point that everyone agrees on. 1 Chronicles 9:1 states, "Now when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with difficult questions."
- Get Impregnated
- Although the Ethiopian tradition does have the Queen marching of with Solomon's baby in her, the tradition doesn't state that outcome as her motive for visiting the King.
- Steal the Ark of the Covenant
- Again, Ethiopian tradition has the Ark of the Covenant coming to them, but it's not from the Queen, but rather, her son (aka Solomon's son) who either steals the ark or is given it by his father.
- Worship Allah
- Not really. The story in the Qur'an has Solomon calling her to him, and she more or less comes to him out of fear of his Kingdom. After she sees the marvelous things he can do, she bows down and worships Allah.
Hey, look at that! A rather straight forward question! Props to you if you got it right!
E) Some Christian interpreters see the Queen of Sheba as a foreshadowing:
- Of the Virgin Mary
- Of the Three Wise Men
- Of the marriage between Christ and the Church
- For the Grafting in of Gentile nations as God's chosen people
- All of the above
- None of the above
- The Queen of Sheba seems to be a point of fascination, especially for Medieval artists and theologians. I don't really understand why she is sometimes depicted as a precursor to the Virgin Mary, but the Wise Men myth makes some sense. The Bible says that she comes bearing gifts of gold, spices and precious stones to Solomon. That at least is similar to the Wise men's gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The Gentile analogy also makes logical sense. There are not too many Old Testament foreigners who come to worship the God of the Jews, so this story presents a rather unique episode that shows the Jewish faith being extended to other nations.
F) King Solomon:
- Raped the Queen -- so, the Ethiopian tradition has the Queen being weary of Solomon, and so she makes him vow that he won't take her by force. He agrees as long as she doesn't take any of his possessions by force. She agrees, but smart-alecky Solomon feeds her super dooper spicy food for dinner. In the middle of the night the Queen ventures out of her bedroom and swipes some water. Sexy Solomon is waiting for this, and calls her out for breaking her vow. The two then spend the night together. Is that rape? Kinda seems like it… but the Ethiopians
- Gave the Queen the Ark of the Covenant -- I kinda expected that some tradition would say this… after all, the Bible says Solomon gave her any and everything she wanted. But apparently the Ark was not on her list of wants.
- Steals the Queen's throne -- In the Qur'an, when Solomon finds out the Queen is coming, he asks who can go steal her throne for him. A jinn says he can do it in the twinkling of the eye. When the Queen arrives and sees her throne, she knows Solomon's not messing around. She quits worshipping the sun, and starts worshipping Solomon's God.
- Convinces the Queen to worship the one true God -- While the Qur'an refers to the Queen's conversion, it should be noted that although the Old Testament has the Queen praising the God of Israel, she doesn't herself worship God.
- All of the Above
- None of the Above
Solomon's gotta live up to that reputation of being the smartest dude in the world, doesn't he? Answer; yes, he does!
G) The Queen of Sheba is prophesied to:
- Stand in judgment over a particular generation of people
- Matthew 12 and Luke 11 both have Jesus stating that, "The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them…"
- Be given a place of honor alongside Balaam
- Nope. No one tries to make any connection between the Queen and Balaam. Only me. In my spare time.
- Hand out the mark of the beast to the people; 666
- No, BUT! Check this out… 1 Kings chapter 10 takes 13 verses to tell the story of the Queen of Sheba… and the very next verse reads as follows, "Now the weight of gold which came in to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold…" Of course, the book of Revelation later marks the number 666 as the number of the great deceiver. So, is this coincidence, or something more?
- Return to the Ark of the Covenant to worship God
- Uh, no. I made this up.
- Remain dead forever
- No! You only wish she'd stay dead!
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Postscript
I chose to create this little quiz to focus in on the myth of the Queen of Sheba, rather than the person. She means a lot of things to a lot of different people. She's a sign of national pride as well as a launch point for religious zeal.
When I decided to write about her, I was mostly intrigued by her connection to the supposed Ark of the Covenant which the Ethiopian Church believes they currently have. But now it seems apparent to me that the appeal of this particular person in history is based precisely on the fact that we don't know anything about her. Everyone loves to speculate. She's an enigma; one that captured the interest of the wisest man alive.
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| This church, The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, in Axum, Ethiopia claims to literally have the Ark of the Covenant! |
Queen of Sheba, whoever you are, I look forward to someday (after the fateful judgment day) learning who you really are, what you're really about.
That's all… another mystery trapped in the sands of time.
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