Kebra Nagast

greatly to dwell with thee, but now, for the sake of all my people, I wish to return to my own country. And as for that which I have heard, may God make it to bear fruit in my heart, and in the hearts of all those who have heard it with me. For the ear could never be filled with the hearing of thy wisdom, and the eye could never be filled with the sight of the same." Now it was not only the Queen who came [to hear the wisdom of Solomon], but very many used to come from cities and countries, both from near and from far ; for in those days there was no man found to be like unto him for wisdom (and it was not only human beings who came to him, but the wild animals and the birds used to come to him and hearken unto his voice, and hold converse with him), and then they returned to their own countries, and every one of them was astonished at his wisdom, and marvelled at what he had seen and heard. And when the Queen sent her message to Solomon, saying that she was about to depart to her own country, he pondered in his heart and said, " woman of such hath come to me from the ends of the splendid beauty earth What do I know ? Will God give me seed in " her ? Now, as it is said in the Book of Kings, Solomon the King was a lover of women. 1 And he married wives of the Hebrews, and the Egyptians, and the Canaanites, and the Edomites, and the lyobawiyan (Moabites ?), and from Rif 2 and Kuergue, 3 and Damascus, and Surest (Syria), and women who were reported to be beautiful. And he had four hundred queens and six hundred concubines. Now this which he did was not for [the sake of] fornication, but as a result of the wise intent that A ! God had given unto him, and his remembering what God had said unto Abraham, " I will make thy seed like the stars of heaven for number, and like the sand of the sea." 4 1 * And Solomon said in his heart, " W hat do 7 i Kings xi, I. SeeYakftt,IV,p.25o. 30 Upper Egypt. 4 Genesis xiii, 17.