Solomon and Birds

In Solomon-1, I gave you an introduction to write my blog about Solomon.
Solomon was a great king of his times. He was the son of David. David himself was a great king but Solomon had special grace of his God Yahweh.

Once, when he was a child, his God Yahweh asked him to ask for a boon he wished for. He asked the boon of wisdom instead of wealth, fame, and victory over his enemies. And Yahweh gave him that too  which he did not ask for.

Solomon Knew All Languages
Solomon not only knew the languages of birds and all kinds of animals (animals of earth, sky and water) but he also had full control over them. He used to converse with them and take work from them. In fact he had control over all the living beings of the world - not only human beings, animals and birds but also over the Jinn, angels and other invisible beings too. Here I describe you an incident in which he used a bird to call the Queen of Sheba, the Queen of Ethiopia, to him.

Once Solomon called all the birds to him, so all the birds came to him, but there was one bird which did not come - that was Hoopoe bird. Solomon got very angry at this and he asked his servant Jenie to find that Hoopoe bird and bring it to him, and if he did not bring that Hoopoe, he would be bitten by worms in the desert. So Jenie went, found the bird after long time and came back to Solomon with it. The bird was trembling with fear.

Solomon asked her where was she and why she did not come when he had called all the birds. She said - "If you will just listen to me why I did not come, I will be convinced that I am pardoned." "Speak." Hoopoe bird said - "Flying high I continued to fly for 3 months without eating anything just to see is there any place which is not under your rule. Flying thus I reached Athiops and met another Hoopoe. I asked him about this. He said - "This kingdom is like that where people worship Sun God and do not even know your Solomon and his God Yahweh."

Hearing this I filled with rage and asked him the name of its king. He said - "This kingdom is called Sheba and here rules a maiden queen Balqis who is very beautiful." Solomon asked him - "Have you yourself seen that queen?" Hoopoe bird said - "Yes, She indeed is beautiful." Solomon then sent a letter to the queen through that Hoopoe bird. He wrote in that letter - "I rule over the whole world, including animals, birds, water animals, genie etc, so you should also come to me and accept me as your king. I will give you proper respect. If you did not come to me I will destroy your whole kingdom within a night."

Hoopoe bird  flew and dropped that letter in the laps of Balqis who was sitting in her court. After reading the letter she consulted her courtiers and decided that she would not go to him and let him destroy her kingdom. Then she sent 500 young boys in the guise of girls and 500 young girls in the guise of boys to him along with gold and an egg size pearl asking its meaning and a gem with a curved hole to be threaded. Since Solomon asked the Hoopoe bird to bring her reply, he came with this reply.

Solomon welcomed the queen's people and did what the queen asked him to do. He said - "It is not good to send people in opposite sex clothes. He wrote this pearl is the symbol of purity. He threaded the gem by ordering one worm to go through that curved hole of the gem tying a hair in his foot.

Balqis got very happy to see this and she set off to Juda to see Solomon.
Such was his control over birds and worms and genie etc.

Solomon
Solomon's Justice
Solomon's Throne

Sushma Gupta
www.sushmajee.com

Solomon-1

King Solomon is not a Hindu character, nor he is related to Hinduism in any way. He is very famous Christian Biblical character. He was the last King of Israel just before its division. I had heard his name before also when I was working in Nigeria in a theological library but it was only a name sake only. I did not know anything abut him. But when I came to Ethiopia, lived there for four years, from 1989 to 1992, and worked there in the Institute of Ethiopian Studies Library of Addis Ababa University then only I came to know about him more. Ethiopian kings consider themselves the descendants of Solomon. How?

There is a very old legend about Solomon continuing from about 3000 BC. There was a Queen of Sheba in Ethiopia in those times with her capital at Axum. She went to see the King Solomon and brought his child with her to Ethiopia. She gave birth to a son who later was crowned as the King of Ethiopia by his father Solomon himself. Since then his descendants had been ruling Ethiopia till 1974, when its last ruler King Haile Selassie, the Lion of Judah, was killed. The account of their meeting is written in "Kebra Negast" (means the Glory of Kings) which is very important book of Ethiopia. This story is supported by Bible, Quran and Jews' Talmud also.

It is so popular that a few books have been written on this theme, even a few films have also been made on this story, but still they are so uncommon for common people that they do not know about it unless they are specifically in that field. It is next to impossible to know about it in India, unless somebody has interest in Ethiopian studies, leave alone Hindi readers. There are some paintings also related to them.

When I came to know about it, a curiosity rose in my heart to read it. Luckily I found a book in the Ethiopian Studies Library and I borrowed it. It was so well and charmingly written that it brought the story live to my mind. I finished it in one day only. When I read that book it seemed to me be a beautiful divine love story. It fascinated me so much that I decided to translate that book in Hindi and I did it. This translation is still with me.

Then I read about Solomon also. His life story is also so fantastic that I could not resist myself to tell people about him. I think I have yet to find a king like him in our Hindu history. A selected bibliography of books and films has also been compiled on "Solomon" and "Solomon and the Queen of Sheba", that is also with it.

He was a fantastic king. I will write something about him in my next blog, till then....


Sushma Gupta
www.sushmajee.com