The QUEEN of SHEBA MENYELEK (I)

and seated him upon his throne, whilst he dressed himself in rags and went and sat in a stable, and then
ordered the two young men to be admitted to the presence. When the young men entered the throne room
the son of the Queen of SHEBA'S minister grasped the hand of the man on the throne, who personified
SOLOMON, thinking that he was the king, but the son of the Queen of SHEBA, who was called
"MENYELEK", stood upright and made no obeisance, and when he looked in the mirror which his mother
had given him, and saw that the features of the occupant of the throne were entirely different from his
own, he knew that he was not standing in the presence of SOLOMON. Then he turned about in all
directions and looked at all the faces that were round about him, and found none resembling his own;
after a time he looked up and saw SOLOMON gazing at him from the stable, and he knew him at once,
and went to the stable and did homage to him as king. And SOLOMON said, "My true son! The other is
also my son, but he is a fool." MENYELEK then took up his abode in JERUSALEM and assisted SOLOMON
in ruling the kingdom, but after a time the people found that father and son did not always agree in their
judicial decisions, and they became dissatisfied. On one occasion in the case of a trespass of cattle the
king decided that the owner of the field might confiscate the cattle which had trespassed, but MENYELEK
ordered him to accept six measures of grain instead of confiscating the cattle. p. lxx Thereupon the people
told the king that they would not be ruled by two chiefs, and that he must send his son back to his native
country. When SOLOMON told his son of the people's complaint MENYELEK advised his father to say to
them, "Is not MENYELEK my first-born son? I will send him away if you will send your first-born sons
with him"; and the people agreed to send their first-born sons to ABYSSINIA with MENYELEK. When
SOLOMON was arranging for MENYELEK'S departure he told him to take the Ark of MICHAEL with him,
but MENYELEK, believing the Ark of MARY to be of greater importance, changed the covers of the two
Arks, and took with him the Ark of MARY. A few days after the departure of MENYELEK a storm visited
JERUSALEM, and SOLOMON told his servants to find out if the Ark of MARY was in its place, presumably
with the idea of securing its protection against the storm. His servants went and looked and, seeing an
Ark with the cover of MARY'S Ark upon it, assumed that it was the Ark of MARY, and reported to
SOLOMON that the Ark of MARY was in its place. He then told them to take off the cover, and when they
had done so they found that the Ark was MICHAEL'S, and though SOLOMON sent a messenger after
MENYELEK to bring back the Ark of MARY, his son refused to give it up. Meanwhile MENYELEK and his
party went on their way, and when they arrived at 2AY$ KÔR , a deacon who was carrying the Ark of
MARY died, and was buried there. After the burial they wished to resume their journey, but the Ark of
MARY refused to move. They then dug up the deacon's body, and laid it in a coffin, and buried it again,
but still the Ark refused to move, and when MENYELEK again ordered them to dig up the body, they
found a finger of the deacon outside the coffin. When they had placed the deacon's finger in the coffin
with the rest of his body, the Ark of MARY allowed itself to be moved, and MENYELEK and his
companions went on their way. In due course they came to TEGRÂY and p. lxxi arrived in AKSÛM, where
they found SATAN building a house to fight against God. When they told him that the Ark of MARY had
come he stopped building, threw down what he had built, and went away; and the stones which he had
collected were used by MENYELEK in building a church to hold the Ark of MARY. One very large stone,
which SATAN was carrying to his building when the news came of the arrival of the Ark of MARY, was
dropped by him at once, and at the present day that stone stands on the same spot on which he dropped it.
5. The Contents of the KEBRA NAGAST Described
The book opens with an interpretation and explanation of the Three Hundred and Eighteen Orthodox
Fathers concerning the children of ADAM, and the statement that the Trinity lived in ZION, the
Tabernacle of the Law of God, which God made in the fortress of His holiness before He made anything
file:///I|/mythology/africa/15/15.html (31 of 206) [01/25/2004 3:27:20 PM]