(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 endued with strength, and given to vehement war: but the command is with thee; so consider what thou wilt command." 33 She said: verily the kings, when they enter a city, despoil it, and make the most powerful inhabitants thereof the most abased; so will they do. 34 But indeed, I will send to them a gift and see with what [reply] the messengers will return." 35 So when (the envoy) came unto Solomon, (the King) said: What! Would ye help me with wealth? But that which Allah hath given me is better than that which He hath given you. Nay it is ye (and not I) who exult in your gift. 36 Return to them, for we will surely come to them with soldiers that they will be powerless to encounter, and we will surely expel them therefrom in humiliation, and they will be debased." 37 He said (to his own men): "Ye chiefs! which of you can bring me her throne before they come to me in submission?" 38 A stalwart of the jinn said: I will bring it thee before thou canst rise from thy place. Lo! I verily am strong and trusty 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: "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 Then when she arrived, it was said: is thy throne like unto? She said: it is as though it were it; and we have been vouchsafed the knowledge before this, and we have been Muslims. 42 Her idols prevented her from believing in God and she was an infidel. 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