She said: 'O Council, let me hear your counsel, concerning my affairs, for I am not used to deciding an affair until you bear me witness' 32 They replied: 'We are possessors of force and great might. It is for you to command, so consider what you will' 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 I shall send them a present and see with what reply my envoys will return." 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: we shall most certainly come upon them with forces which they will never be able to withstand, and shall most certainly cause them to be driven from their lands, disgraced and humbled!" 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 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 with whom was knowledge of the Scripture said: "I will bring it to you within the twinkling of an eye!" then when [Sulaiman (Solomon)] saw it placed before him, he said: "This is by the Grace of my Lord to test me whether I am grateful or ungrateful! And whoever is grateful, truly, his gratitude is for (the good of) his ownself, and whoever is ungrateful, (he is ungrateful only for the loss of his ownself). Certainly! My Lord is Rich (Free of all wants), Bountiful." 40 He said: Alter her throne for her, we will see whether she follows the right way or is of those who do not go aright. 41 So when she came, it was said: Is your throne like this? She said: It is as it were the same, and we were given the knowledge before it, and we were submissive. 42 And that which she used to worship beside God had stopped her [from believing]; for she came of a disbelieving people. 43 It was said to her, “Enter the hall”; and when she saw it she thought it was a pool and bared her shins*; said Sulaiman, “This is only a smooth hall, affixed with glass”; she said, “My Lord, I have indeed wronged myself, and I now submit myself along with Sulaiman to Allah, the Lord Of The Creation.” (* In order to cross it) 44