(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 answered: "We are endowed with power and with mighty prowess in war - but the command is thine; consider, then, what thou wouldst command." 33 She said: "Kings, when they enter a country, despoil it, and make the noblest of its people its meanest thus do they behave. 34 I will send them a gift and then see with what answer my envoys return." 35 So when they came to Solomon, he said, "Do you provide me with wealth? But what Allah has given me is better than what He has given you. Rather, it is you who rejoice in your gift. 36 Go back to them, so we will most certainly come to them with hosts which they shall have no power to oppose, and we will most certainly expel them therefrom in abasement, and they shall be in a state of ignominy. 37 Solomon said: "My nobles, which of you can bring 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 One who had the knowledge of the Book said: I will bring it to you in the twinkling of an eye. Then when he saw it settled beside him, he said: This is of the grace of my Lord that He may try me whether I am grateful or ungrateful; and whoever is grateful, he is grateful only for his own soul, and whoever is ungrateful, then surely my Lord is Self-sufficient, Honored. 40 He said: "Transform her throne out of all recognition by her: let us see whether she is guided (to the truth) or is one of those who receive no guidance." 41 So when she came, it was said (to her): "Is your throne like this?" She said: "(It is) as though it were the very same." And [Sulaiman (Solomon) said]: "Knowledge was bestowed on us before her, and we were submitted to Allah (in Islam as Muslims before her)." 42 And he diverted her from the worship of others besides Allah: for she was (sprung) of a people that had no faith. 43 She was asked to enter the lofty Palace: but when she saw it, she thought it was a lake of water, and she (tucked up her skirts), uncovering her legs. He said: "This is but a palace paved smooth with slabs of glass." She said: "O my Lord! I have indeed wronged my soul: I do (now) submit (in Islam), with Solomon, to the Lord of the Worlds." 44