She said, 'O Council, pronounce to me concerning my affair; I am not used to decide an affair until you bear me witness.' 32 They said: "We are strong and are given to vehement fighting. But the decision is yours. Therefore, consider what you would like to 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 And surely I am going to send a present to them, and shall wait to see what (answer) do the apostles bring back. 35 Now when [the Queen's messenger] came unto Solomon, he said: "Do you people mean to add to my wealth? But that which God has given me is [so much] better than all that He has given you! Nay, it is [only such as] you that would rejoice in this gift of yours! 36 Go back then, we shall surely come against them with soldiers of which they have no power to oppose, and we shall drive them from there abased and humiliated' 37 [When Solomon learned that the Queen of Sheba was coming,] he said [to his council]: "O you nobles! Which of you can bring me her throne ere she and her followers come unto me in willing surrender to God?" 38 An efreet (an extremely strong jinn) among the jinn replied: 'I will bring it to you before you rise from your place; I have the strength and am trustworthy' 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 Said Sulaiman, “Disguise her throne in front of her so that we may see whether she finds the way* or becomes of those who remain unknowing.” (*Recognises her throne.) 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 she has recognized the truth] although that which she has been wont to worship instead of God had kept her away [from the right path]: for, behold, she is descended of people who deny the truth!" 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