Editing Sheba (section)

=== Islamic tradition ===
{{further|Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia#South Arabia}}
{{main|Queen of Sheba#Islamic}}

The story of the visit of the [[Queen of Sheba]] to [[Solomon]] story is discussed in Quran [[An-Naml|27]]:15–44.<ref name="Brannon2002" /><ref>{{qref|27|6-93|b=y}}</ref><ref>{{qref|34|15-18|b=y}}</ref>
[[File:Bilquis.jpg|thumb|right|Bilqis reclining in a garden, Persian miniature (ca. 1595), tinted drawing on paper]]
[[File:Hafiz - Left Side of a Double-page Illustrated Frontispiece Depicting Queen Sheba (Bilqis) Enthroned - Walters W6313A - Full Page.jpg|thumb|Illustration in a [[Hafez]] [[Book frontispiece|frontispiece]]: Bilqis enthroned, under a flying [[simurgh]] (c. 1539)]]

The name of Saba' is mentioned in the Qur'an in [[Al-Ma'idah|Surah 5]]:69, [[an-Naml|Surah 27]]:15-44 and [[Saba (surah)|Surah 34]]:15-17. Surah 34 is named ''Sabaʾ''. Their mention in Surah 5 refers to the area in the context of [[Solomon in Islam|Solomon]] and the [[Queen of Sheba]], whereas their mention in Surah 34 refers to the [[Marib Dam#Final breach|Flood of the Dam]], in which the dam was ruined by flooding. There is also an epithet, ''Qawm Tubbaʿ''  or "People of Tubbaʿ" ([[ad-Dukhan|Surah 44]]:37, [[Qaf (surah)|Surah 50]]:12-14) that some exegetes have identified as a reference to the [[List of rulers of Saba and Himyar|kings of Saba']].<ref name="Brannon2002">{{Cite book |last=Wheeler |first=Brannon M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qIDZIep-GIQC&pg=PA166 |title=Prophets in the Quran: An Introduction to the Quran and Muslim Exegesis |publisher=A&C Black |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8264-4957-3 |page=166 |author-link=Brannon Wheeler}}</ref>

Muslim commentators such as [[al-Tabari]], [[al-Zamakhshari]], [[al-Baydawi]] supplement the story at various points. The Queen's name is given as ''Bilqis'', probably derived from Greek παλλακίς or the Hebraised ''pilegesh'', "concubine".<ref>{{citation | author=Georg Freytag | author-link=Georg Freytag | entry=ﺑَﻠٔﻘَﻊٌ | title=Lexicon arabico-latinum | publisher=Schwetschke | year=1837 | page=44a | url=https://archive.org/details/lexiconarabicol00freygoog}}</ref> According to some he then married the Queen, while other traditions assert that he gave her in marriage to a [[List of rulers of Saba and Himyar|tubba]] of [[Banu Hamdan|Hamdan]].<ref name="ei2-bilkis" /> According to the Islamic tradition as represented by [[Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Hamdani|al-Hamdani]], the queen of Sheba was the daughter of Ilsharah Yahdib, the [[Himyarite Kingdom|Himyarite king]] of [[Najran]].<ref name="ei2-saba">{{citation | author=A. F. L. Beeston | author-link=Alfred Felix Landon Beeston | contribution=SABAʾ | title=[[The Encyclopaedia of Islam]] | edition=2nd | volume=8 | publisher=Brill | year=1995 | pages=663–665}}</ref>

Although the Quran and its commentators have preserved the earliest literary reflection of the complete Bilqis legend, there is little doubt among scholars that the narrative is derived from a Jewish [[Midrash]].<ref name="ei2-bilkis">{{citation | author=E. Ullendorff | author-link=Edward Ullendorff | contribution=BILḲĪS | title=[[The Encyclopaedia of Islam]] | edition=2nd | volume=2 | publisher=Brill | year=1991 | pages=1219–1220}}</ref>

Bible stories of the Queen of Sheba and the ships of [[Ophir]] served as a basis for legends about the Israelites traveling in the Queen of Sheba's entourage when she returned to her country to bring up her child by Solomon.<ref>{{citation | author=Haïm Zʿew Hirschberg | author2=Hayyim J. Cohen | contribution=ARABIA | title=[[Encyclopaedia Judaica]] | edition=2nd | volume=3 | year=2007 | publisher=Gale | page=295}}</ref> There is a Muslim tradition that the first Jews arrived in Yemen at the time of King Solomon, following the politico-economic alliance between him and the Queen of Sheba.<ref name="ej2-queen">{{citation |author=Yosef Tobi |title=[[Encyclopaedia Judaica]] |volume=16 |page=765 |year=2007 |contribution=QUEEN OF SHEBA |edition=2nd |publisher=Gale}}</ref>[[File:Haram 40.jpg|thumb|Inscription that shows religious practice during pilgrimage]]
The Ottoman scholar [[Mahmud al-Alusi]] compared the religious practices of South Arabia to Islam in his ''Bulugh al-'Arab fi Ahwal al-'Arab''.

{{Blockquote|The Arabs during the pre-Islamic period used to practice certain things that were included in the Islamic Sharia. They, for example, did not marry both a mother and her daughter. They considered marrying two sisters simultaneously to be the most heinous crime. They also censured anyone who married his stepmother, and called him dhaizan. They made the major [[hajj]] and the minor [[umra]] pilgrimage to the [[Ka'ba]], performed the circumambulation around the Ka'ba [[tawaf]], ran seven times between Mounts Safa and Marwa [[sa'y]], threw rocks and washed themselves after sexual intercourse. They also gargled, sniffed water up into their noses, clipped their fingernails, removed all pubic hair and performed ritual circumcision. Likewise, they cut off the right hand of a thief and stoned Adulterers.<ref>{{cite book |title=Bulugh al-'Arab fi Ahwal al-'Arab, Vol. 2 |page=122 |first=Muhammad Shukri |last=al-Alusi}}</ref>}}

According to the medieval religious scholar [[al-Shahrastani]], Sabaeans accepted both the sensible and intelligible world. They did not follow religious laws but centered their worship on spiritual entities.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Walbridge |first1=John |date=1998 |title=Explaining Away the Greek Gods in Islam |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/3653893 |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=389–403 |doi=10.2307/3653893 |jstor=3653893 |issn=0022-5037}}</ref>