(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 men of valour, and brave fighters. It is for you to decide. So consider what you should 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 "But verily! I am going to send him a present, and see with what (answer) the messengers return." 35 Now when (the embassy) came to Solomon, he said: "Will ye give me abundance in wealth? But that which Allah has given me is better than that which He has given you! Nay it is ye who 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 Solomon said: "My nobles, which of you can bring me her throne before they come to me in submission?" 38 A crafty jinn said: "I will bring it before you rise from your seat, for I am strong and trustworthy." 39 One with whom was knowledge of the Scripture said: I will bring it thee before thy gaze returneth unto thee. And when he saw it set in his presence, (Solomon) said: This is of the bounty of my Lord, that He may try me whether I give thanks or am ungrateful. Whosoever giveth thanks he only giveth thanks for (the good of) his own soul; and whosoever is ungrateful (is ungrateful only to his own soul's hurt). For lo! my Lord is Absolute in independence, Bountiful. 40 He said, "Disguise her throne. We shall see whether or not she will recognize it." 41 So when she arrived, she was asked, "Is this thy throne?" She said, "It was just like this; and knowledge was bestowed on us in advance of this, and we have submitted to Allah (in Islam)." 42 And that which she used to worship beside God had stopped her [from believing]; for she came 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