(After reading the letter) the Queen said: "Nobles, let me have your counsel in this matter for I make no firm decision without you." 32 They said, "We are strong and our prowess in battle is great, but the decision is in your hands, so consider what you will command." 33 Said she: "Verily, whenever kings enter a country they corrupt it, and turn the noblest of its people into the most abject. And this is the way they [always] behave? 34 But indeed, I will send to them a gift and see with what [reply] the messengers will return." 35 So when he came to Sulaiman, he said: What! will you help me with wealth? But what Allah has given me is better than what He has given you. Nay, you are exultant because of your present; 36 Go back to them. We shall soon come with our armies which they will not be able to face. We shall drive them out of (the land) with ignominy, and they will be humbled." 37 He said: "O chiefs! Which of you can bring me her throne before they come to me surrendering themselves in obedience?" 38 An Ifrit (strong) from the jinns said: "I will bring it to you before you rise from your place (council). And verily, I am indeed strong, and trustworthy for such work." 39 But one who had knowledge of the letter, said: "I will bring it to you in the twinkling of an eye." When Solomon saw it before him, (he said): "This is by the grace of my Lord that He may test me whether I am grateful or I am thankless. Yet if one is grateful, he is grateful for himself, and if one is thankless, then surely my Lord is unconcerned and magnanimous." 40 He said, 'Disguise her throne for her, and we shall behold whether she is guided or if she is of those that are not guided.' 41 And so, as soon as she arrived, she was asked: "Is thy throne like this?" She answered: "It is as though it were the same!" [And Solomon said to his nobles: "She has arrived at the truth without any help from us,] although it is we who have been given [divine] knowledge before her, and have [long ago] surrendered ourselves unto God! 42 She was (in fact) turned away by what she worshipped other than God, for she came of an unbelieving people. 43 She was told: "Enter the palace." But when she saw it, she thought it was a pool of water and she bared both her calves (to enter into it). Solomon said: "This is a slippery floor of crystal." Thereupon she cried out: "My Lord, I have been inflicting much wrong on myself. Now I submit myself with Solomon to Allah, the Lord of the whole Universe." 44