A Royal Visit
- The Queen of Sheba hears all about how amazingly wise and wealthy Solomon is. So she travels from Ethiopia to check him out for herself.
- When she arrives in Jerusalem, she's pretty impressed. She peppers Solomon with all kinds of questions and riddles, but he has an answer for everything. He also has loads and loads of money. The Queen likes his swag.
- The Queen finally has to admit that Solomon is über wise. And the people of Israel are so happy under his rule! Obviously, God was the one who sat him on the throne.
- She offers him blessings and gemstones and spices and gold.
- While she visits, Solomon "grant[s] the queen of Sheba every desire that she expressed." That sounds vaguely sexy. Finally, the queen returns back home.
- Did we mention Solomon is rich? He makes Bill Gates look positively upper-middle class.
- It's the gold. He has gold coming in from merchants and gold coming in from other kingdoms. Solomon makes everything out of gold. Cups. Bowls. Chairs.
- Solomon even makes an elaborate throne for himself. It's constructed of ivory and overlaid with (what else?) gold. It has a gold footstool and 12 gold lions around it.
- Basically, Solomon is wealthier than any other man on the planet. And wiser, too. People come from all over the known world just to get his thoughts. He even considers blogging.
- But alas, money and wisdom cannot buy immortality. After Solomon reigns over Israel for 40 years, he dies.