Tafsir of An-Naml 27:44

This is an explanatory resumption, as if it were said, "What was said to her after the aforementioned trial?" Thus, it is said: "It was said to her: Enter the palace..." It is not coordinated with His saying, "Is your throne like this?" so that this meaning is not lost. The pronoun "her" (ha) is used here instead of what preceded it, in reference to the command given to her.

"The palace" (al-sarh) refers to a castle or any elevated structure—from which comes the expression, "Build me a palace (sarhan)." It is derived from tasrih, which means clear and full manifestation. Mujahid said that "the palace" here means a pool. Ibn Isa said it means a courtyard (sahn), and the courtyard of a house is its open space.

It is narrated that Solomon, peace be upon him, commanded the Jinn before her arrival, and they built for him a palace on her path made of white glass. Water was made to flow beneath it, and in it were placed creatures of the sea, fish and others. In another narration, they built him a palace and made for it tiles of glass appearing as water, and inside the tiles, they placed all manner of sea creatures, then they covered it. This is more in line with the apparent meaning of the verse. He placed his throne at its entrance and sat upon it, while the birds, Jinn, and humans flocked around him. This was also done as a trial for her, as it is said. It is also said: it was to increase her awe of his status, to verify his prophethood, and to strengthen her in the faith. It is also said that the Jinn told him, peace be upon him, "She is hairy of leg, and her foot is like the hoof of a donkey," so he wanted to uncover the truth of the situation through this.

The Greatest Shaykh—may his secret be sanctified—stated in summary that he intended to alert her through this action that she was truthful in her saying regarding the throne, as if it were the same, for it had vanished from Sheba and appeared before her. Thus, he made for her a palace of utmost delicacy and clarity, appearing as clear water when it was not. This is the height of fairness from him, peace be upon him. I do not think the matter is as he said, and Allah, the Exalted, knows best. The verse has been used as evidence for the opinion that ordering her to enter the palace in order to uncover the truth of the situation permits looking [at a woman] before a formal proposal, though there is detail regarding this in the books of jurisprudence.

"When she saw it" (i.e., she perceived its purity, based on the palace being understood as a castle) "she deemed it a body of water" (she thought it was much water) "and uncovered her legs" (so that her garments would not become wet, as is the custom of one who intends to wade into water). Ibn Kathir, in the narration of Qunbul, read it as sa’iha (with a hamza on the alif), treating saq (leg) as pluralized into su’uq and as’uq, as this is consistent with the waw being damma-marked—or the letter preceding it being a hamza—which then trickles down by analogy to the singular form contained within it.

In Al-Bahr, it is related from Abu Ali that Abahiyya al-Numayri would place a hamza on every waw preceded by a damma, and he recited: "The most beloved of the mu'aqidin (heaters) to Mu'sa (Moses)." Apparently, the hamza is a dialect variation of saq, and this reading, established in the seven, bears witness to it. It has been objected to by saying that etymology rejects it, but regardless, the statement of those who say this reading is invalid is itself invalid.

"He said" (i.e., Solomon, peace be upon him, when he saw the astonishment and fear that overcame her—though it is said the speaker is the one who ordered her to enter the palace, which is contrary to the apparent meaning), "It is a palace smoothed" (i.e., polished; from this comes amrad for a youth who has no hair on his face, a "bald" tree with no leaves, a "bald" patch of sand that grows nothing, and the marid [rebellious one] stripped of goodness) "of glass."

"She said" (when she witnessed this great matter), "My Lord, I have wronged my soul" (i.e., by what I was upon regarding the worship of the sun). It is also said: by my harboring bad thoughts about Solomon, peace be upon him, thinking he intended to drown her in the water, though this is far-fetched. Similar to this is what was said: she meant, "I wronged my soul by testing Solomon, until he tested me in return with that which necessitated the uncovering of my legs in his sight."

"And I have submitted with Solomon to Allah, Lord of the Worlds." This indicates a shift to the Majestic Name to display her knowledge of the divinity of the Exalted, His uniqueness in deserving worship, and His Lordship over all existents, among which was what she used to worship before that—the sun.

There is a difference of opinion regarding her affairs after Islam. It is said that he, peace be upon him, married her, loved her, and left her in charge of her kingdom, and ordered the Jinn to build for her the castles of Silhin and Ghumdan, and he would visit her once a month, staying three days, and she bore him children. Ibn Asakir narrated from Salama bin Abdullah bin Rabi’i that he, peace be upon him, gave her Baalbek as a dowry. Many have mentioned that when she uncovered her legs, he saw much hair upon them, so he disliked marrying her in that state. He called the humans and asked, "What removes this?" They replied, "O Prophet of Allah, the razors." He said, "The razors will cut the legs of the woman." In another narration, it was said to her, and she replied, "Iron has never touched me." Solomon disliked the razors, saying, "They will cut her legs." He then called the Jinn, who said the same. Then he called the devils, and they placed for him al-nura (depilatory paste). Ibn Abbas said that this day was the first day nura was seen. It is also narrated from Ikrimah that the first to introduce nura were the devils of humans, who placed it for Bilqis, though this contradicts the famous account. It is also narrated that the bathhouse was introduced on that day.

In the history of Bukhari, from Abu Musa al-Ash'ari: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said, "The first for whom bathhouses were built was Solomon." Al-Tabarani, Ibn Adi in Al-Kamil, and Al-Bayhaqi in Shu'ab al-Iman alsoخرج it from him, saying: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said, "The first to enter a bathhouse was Solomon. When he felt its heat, he said, 'Oh, from the punishment of Allah the Exalted.'"

It is narrated from Wahb that he said: They claimed that when Bilqis accepted Islam, Solomon said to her, "Choose a man from your people, and I shall marry you to him." She replied, "A person like me, O Prophet of Allah, is married to men, when I possessed among my people such kingship and authority as I did?" He said, "Yes, for it cannot be otherwise, and it is not fitting for you to forbid what Allah the Exalted has made lawful for you." She said, "Marry me, if it must be, to Dhu Taba, the King of Hamdan." So he married her to him, then returned her to Yemen, and empowered her husband Dhu Taba over Yemen. He summoned Zawba'a, the prince of the Jinn of Yemen, and said, "Work for Dhu Taba in what he commands you." Thus, he continued to be a king in it, with the Jinn working for him until Solomon died. When a year passed and the Jinn realized he had died, a man among them came and traversed Tihama until, in the heart of Yemen, he shouted at the top of his voice, "O assembly of Jinn, King Solomon has died, so withdraw your hands!" They withdrew their hands, dispersed, and the kingdom of Dhu Taba and the kingdom of Bilqis with Solomon, peace be upon him, came to an end.

Awn bin Abdullah said: A man asked Abdullah bin Utbah, "Did Solomon marry Bilqis?" He replied, "The matter ends with her statement: 'I have submitted with Solomon to Allah, Lord of the Worlds.'" It is said that he meant, "We have no knowledge beyond that."

The famous opinion is that he, peace be upon him, married her, and this is the view of a group of chroniclers. Al-Bayhaqi extracted in Al-Zuhd from Al-Awza'i: A tower in Palmyra collapsed, and they found in it a beautiful woman, dark-eyed, perfectly formed, as if her limbs were rolled up like scrolls. On her was a turban eighty cubits long, and written on the edge of the turban in gold was: "In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. I am Bilqis, Queen of Sheba, wife of Solomon son of David, peace be upon them both. I reigned over the world, as a disbeliever and a believer, such that no one before me possessed, nor will anyone possess after me. My destiny has become death, so refrain, O seekers of the world." Allah, the Exalted, knows best the validity of the report.

How many reports there are in this story! Allah, the Exalted, knows best which of them are authentic. The story itself is marvelous and contains things contrary to custom that the intellect at first glance nearly deems impossible. Among what is found strange—and in it Allah, the Exalted, has a hidden secret—is the obscurity of Bilqis's matter to Solomon for several years, as mentioned by more than one person, even though the distance between him and her was not extremely vast, and Allah had subjected for him the Jinn, the birds, and the wind. This is stranger than the obscurity of Joseph’s matter to Jacob, peace be upon them, by many degrees. Glory be to Him from whose knowledge not an atom’s weight escapes in the heavens or the earth.

This is so, and the Sufis have long discussions on applying what is in this story to what is within the human soul. Perhaps the matter is easy for one who has the slightest taste after becoming familiar with some of their aforementioned applications of certain stories to this. And Allah is the Guide to the straight path.