." Advise me, O nobles," she said "in this matter. I do not decide any thing until you concur." 32 They said, “We possess great strength and are great warriors, and the decision is yours, therefore consider what you will command.” 33 She said: "Verily! Kings, when they enter a town (country), they despoil it, and make the most honourable amongst its people low. And thus they do. 34 Now I will send them a present, and see what the envoys bring back.' 35 So when [the envoy] came to Solomon he said, "What! Are you offering me wealth? But that which God has given me is better than that which He has given you. Yet you rejoice in your gift. 36 "Go back to them, and be sure we shall come to them with such hosts as they will never be able to meet: We shall expel them from there in disgrace, and they will feel humbled (indeed)." 37 He said: O chiefs! which of you can bring to me her throne before they come to me in submission? 38 An efreet of the jinns said, 'I will bring it to thee, before thou risest from thy place; I have strength for it 39 But one of them who had some knowledge of the Book said, "I will bring it to you in the twinkling of an eye." When Solomon saw it placed before him, he exclaimed, "This is by the grace of my Lord, to test whether I am grateful or ungrateful. Whosoever is grateful, it is for the good of his own self; and whosoever is ungrateful, then surely my Lord is self-sufficient and generous." 40 He said, "Disguise her throne. We shall see whether or not she will recognize it." 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 And that which she used to worship besides Allah has prevented her (from Islam), for she was of a disbelieving people. 43 [After a while] she was told: "Enter this court!" - but when she saw it, she thought that it was a fathomless expanse of water, and she bared her legs. Said he: "Behold, it is [but] a court smoothly paved with glass!" Cried she: "O my Sustainer! I have been sinning against myself thy worshipping aught but Thee]: but [now] I have surrendered myself, with Solomon, unto the Sustainer of all the worlds!" 44