Knowing

Sheba

Sheba (; Ge'ez: ሳባ, Saba, Arabic: سبأ‎, Sabaʾ, South Arabian S-b-ʾ, Hebrew: שבא‬, Šəḇā) was a South Arabian speaking kingdom whose location is unknown. It is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the Quran. Sheba features in Jewish, Muslim, and Christian, particularly Ethiopian Christian, traditions. It was the home of the biblical "Queen of Sheba", who is left unnamed in the Bible, but receives the names Makeda in Ethiopian and Bilqīs in Arabic tradition. The predominant scholarly view is that the biblical narrative about the kingdom of Sheba was based on the ancient civilization of Saba in South Arabia, in contradiction to several local traditions from different countries. Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman write that "the Sabaean kingd… more »