Makeda, Queen of Sheba

The Queen of Sheba appears across the Hebrew Bible, the Quran, and Ethiopian tradition as a powerful ruler who travelled a great distance to test the wisdom of King Solomon of Israel with difficult questions, bringing with her vast quantities of gold, precious stones, and spices as gifts. The biblical and Quranic accounts do not name her or specify her origin with certainty, and various traditions have located her kingdom in southern Arabia, in the Horn of Africa, or both.

Ethiopia's national epic, the Kebra Nagast ("Glory of Kings"), compiled in its current form around the 14th century, gives the fullest account of her story, naming her Makeda and identifying her as ruler of Aksum. According to this tradition, her meeting with Solomon resulted in a son, Menelik I, who would return to Jerusalem as a young man and later bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Ethiopia, an event Ethiopian Orthodox Christians hold to this day.

Modern historians generally regard the Kebra Nagast's detailed narrative as a text composed centuries later to legitimise the Solomonic dynasty's claim to divine and biblical descent, rather than a contemporary historical record. Regardless of its historicity, the tradition of Makeda, Queen of Sheba, remains one of the most culturally significant and enduring figures in Ethiopian and broader African historical memory, central to Ethiopian national identity, Rastafarian belief, and centuries of art, literature, and religious tradition across three continents.