Kebra Nagast

How King Solomon swore to the Queen King Solomon and watched him carefully, and she thought that he was sleeping a sound sleep. But he was not asleep, and he was waiting until she should at up to steal the water to [quench] her thirst. And she rose up and, making no sound with her feet, she rise went to the water in the bowl and lifted up the jar to drink the water. And Solomon seized her hand before " she could drink the water, and said unto her, Whyhast thou broken the oath that thou hast sworn that thou wouldst not take by force anything that is in my >: And she answered and said unto him in house ? " " Is oath broken by my drinking water ? the fear, " And the King said unto her, Is there anything that thou hast seen under the heavens that is better than water ? And the Queen said, " I have sinned against myself, and thou art free from [thy] oath. But let me drink water for my thirst." Then Solomon said unto " I perchance free from the oath which thou her, " hast made me swear ? And the Queen said, " Be free from thy oath, only let me drink water." And he permitted her to drink water, and after she had drunk water he worked his will with her and they slept together. And after he slept there appeared unto King Solo' ' Am mon [in a dream] a brilliant sun, and it came down from heaven and shed exceedingly great splendour over Israel. And when it had tarried there for a time it suddenly withdrew itself, and it flew away to the country of Ethiopia, and it shone there with exceedingly great brightness for ever, for it willed to dwell And [the King said], " I waited [to see] if it there. would come back to Israel, but it did not return. And again while I waited a light rose up in the heavens, and a Sun came down from them in the country of Judah, and it sent forth light which was very much And 1 Israel, because of the stronger than before." 1 The remainder of this paragraph is a comment by the author of this work. c 2 35