The queen’s brilliant diplomacy and successful peace-making initiatives to avert certain war were not utmost in the minds of the patriarchal exegetes, but rather the control of this “haughty” – read autonomous – woman’s body, and the restriction of her mobility and sexuality through marriage.
But in its medieval reconstructions, gender politics takes center stage. The queen’s gender is immaterial to her leadership and governance her faith is at the center of the Quranic revelations. This chapter argues that God’s concern is not with the queen’s marital status, nor with arranging a marriage for the fabulous pair. The Quranic revelations concerning the sovereignty of the Queen of Sheba and her encounter with King Solomon are juxtaposed with the latter’s fanciful reconstructions by medieval Muslim biographers.
