SOLOMON, THE "WISE MAN."

"...you have received the message, then I myself will come to you." And two years after this time, the Queen of Sheba arrived at Jerusalem.

When SOLOMON heard that the queen was coming, he sent Benaiah original: "Benayahu", the son of Jehoiada original: "Yehoyadah", the general of his army, to meet her. When the queen saw him, she thought he was the king, and she stepped down original: "alighted" from her carriage.

Then Benaiah asked, "Why do you step down from your carriage?"
And she answered, "Are you not his majesty, the king?"
"No," replied Benaiah, "I am but one of his officers."

Then the queen turned back and said to her ladies-in-waiting, "If this is only one of the officers, and he is so noble and imposing in appearance, how great must be his superior, the king!"

And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, conducted the Queen of Sheba to the palace of the king.

SOLOMON prepared to receive his visitor in a suite original: "apartment" floor-tiled and lined with glass; the queen was at first so deceived by the appearance that she imagined the king to be sitting in water. This refers to a famous legend where the glass floor was so clear it looked like a pool of water, leading the queen to lift her skirts.

And when the queen had tested SOLOMON's wisdom and witnessed his magnificence, she said:

"I did not believe what I heard, but now I have come, and my eyes have seen it all; behold, the half has not been told to me. Happy are your servants who stand before you continually to listen to your words of wisdom. Blessed be the Lord your God, who has placed you on a throne to rule righteously and in justice."

When other kingdoms heard the words of the Queen of Sheba, they feared SOLOMON exceedingly, and he became greater than all the other kings of the earth in wisdom and in wealth.

SOLOMON was born in the year 2912 A.M. original: "Anno Mundi," meaning "in the year of the world," a calendar system based on the biblical creation, and reigned over Israel forty years. Four hundred and thirty-three years passed between the date of Solomon's reign and that of the Temple's destruction.