Arrogance and Defensiveness vs. Submission to God's Signs in the Story of Solomon and Sheba

In the surah “The Ant”, we have the story of Queen Sheba and Solomon.  The story is to some extent strange.  God gave Solomon the gift of knowing the language of birds, and hoopoe, the same leader-bird in Attar’s the “Conference of the Birds”, tells him about Queen Sheba:

“I found a woman ruling over the people, who has been given a share of everything– she has a magnificent throne– [but] I found that she and her people worshipped the sun instead of God. Satan has made their deeds seem alluring to them, and diverted them from the right path: they cannot find the right path.  Should they not worship God, who brings forth what is hidden in the heavens and earth and knows both what you people conceal and what you declare?  He is God, there is no god but Him, the Lord of the mighty throne.’” (27:23-26)

Pay attention that the story of Queen Sheba comes after the story of Pharaoh, who in his arrogance denied Moses’s nine signs of God and consequently was drowned in the sea.  It is there that God says:

“But when Our enlightening signs came to them, they said, ‘This is clearly [just] sorcery!’  They denied them, in their wickedness and their pride, even though their souls acknowledged them as true.  See how those who spread corruption met their end!” (27:13-14)

Solomon sends her a letter: “In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy, do not put yourselves above me, and come to me in submission to God.”’ (27:31)

How does Sheba react to this letter?  She says: “‘Whenever kings go into a city, they ruin it and humiliate its leaders– that is what they do–but I am going to send them a gift, then see what answer my envoys bring back.’” (27:34-5)

It is strange that today in the Creativity course, we were discussing Carl Rogers’ views about destructive and constructive creativity and our example was Trump as a representative of destructive creativity.  We discussed that ‘truth’ is simple.  What hinders us from accepting it is our ego and its justifications and rationalizations, our keeping face, of not seeing our mistakes and becoming defensive about them.  I told them women are less apologetic and defensive about their mistakes compared to men—not that they are not at all.  The truth is easy, if I let go of my defenses and know my weakness and be open to experience, if I don’t follow the crowd and use my own heart and reason.   This is what God says about Pharaoh and his followers: “They denied them [the truth of God’s signs], in their wickedness and their pride, even though their souls acknowledged them as true.”  Indeed, this is a sign of gratefulness.  Those who are grateful in their heart accept the truth and those who are arrogant rejects it.  After God helps Solomon to have Sheba’s throne, Solomon says: “‘This is a favor from my Lord, to test whether I am grateful or not: if anyone is grateful, it is for his own good, if anyone is ungrateful, then my Lord is self-sufficient and most generous.’” (27:40)

Queen Sheba was invited to Solomon’s palace and she saw her throne and Solomon said, “‘We were given knowledge before her, and we devoted ourselves to God; she was prevented by what she worshipped instead of God, for she came from a disbelieving people.’  Then it was said to her, ‘Enter the hall,’ but when she saw it, she thought it was a deep pool of water, and bared her legs.  Solomon explained, ‘It is just a hall paved with glass,’ and she said, ‘My Lord, I have wronged myself: I devote myself, with Solomon, to God, the Lord of the Worlds.’” (27:42-44)

Pay attention that the knowledge has come to Solomon, not because he is a ‘man’ and she is a ‘woman’, but because he is a believer and she is not.  However, she has an advantage over so many men and women in her humble heart and non-defensiveness, in listening to the call of her heart, instead of following her pride and wickedness.   The simile of ‘the transparent hall’ is the simile of deceptiveness of the riches of the world and how a transparent heart can enter God’s interior castle with gratefulness and submission to truth.