An-Naml (The Ant)

29. “(When the Queen of Sheba received the letter,) she said: ‘O chiefs! Verily there has been thrown unto me a noble letter.”

30. “Verily, it is from Solomon; and verily it is: ‘In the Name of Allah. The Beneficent, the Merciful’.”

31. “Exalt not yourselves against me, and come to me in submission.”

Guidance and preaching must be delivered kindly and mercifully; beginning with the holy phrase:

‘In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful’.

Solomon (as) wrote a very short and comprehensive letter and, giving it to the hoopoe, he told the bird to throw it down unto them and then return and wait in a corner to see what reaction they would have.

It is understood from the Qur’anic phrase “Throw it down unto them” that the hoopoe should throw it down when the Queen of Sheba was sitting in the gathering among her people so that there would remain no room for forsaking and denying it.

This also makes it clear that there is no proof for the commentary of some commentators who have said the hoopoe entered the castle of the Queen of Sheba and her room and threw the letter on her chest or her throat, though it is not so inconsistent with the sentence mentioned in the next verse which says:

“…Verily there has been thrown unto me a noble letter.”

The Queen of Sheba opened the letter and was informed of its content. Since she had formerly heard of the fame of Solomon and the content of the letter indicated that he had taken a severe decision about the country of Sheba, she fell into a deep thought; and since she used to consult with the chiefs of her entourage, she invited them.

As the Qur’an says:

“(When the Queen of Sheba received the letter,) she said: ‘O chiefs! Verily there has been thrown unto me a noble letter.”

Had the Queen of Sheba truly not seen the bringer of the letter? But, with the content of the letter, she felt the nobility of the letter and she never thought that it might be a fabricated letter.

Or she saw the letter with her own eyes, and its surprising circumstance proved that there was a reality over there and it was not an ordinary thing. Whatever it was, she relied on the letter with certainty.

The matter that the Queen says that the letter is a noble and worthy one, may be for the magnificent content of it, or for its beginning which began with the name of Allah, and its ending was correctly signed and sealed;¹ or its sender had been a noble person, each of which has been guessed by the commentators.

Or all of them may be found in this consistent concept, because there is no contradictory between them.

It is true that they were sun-worshippers, but we know that many of the idolaters believed in Allah, too, and called Him as the Lord of lords. They counted His respect and glorification important.

Then, the Queen of Sheba referred to the content of the letter when she said:

“Verily, it is from Solomon; and verily it is: ‘In the Name of Allah. The Beneficent, the Merciful’.” “Exalt not yourselves against me, and come to me in submission.”

It is not probable that Solomon had written the letter with these very Arabic phrases; therefore the above-mentioned phrases can be paraphrased, or they are the summary of Solomon’s letter that the Queen of Sheba reiterated for her people.

It is interesting that the content of this letter was indeed not more than three sentences: one sentence was the name of Allah, and the statement of His attributes of mercifulness and compassionateness.

The second sentence was a recommendation for controlling the low desire and abundance of self-superiority, which is the origin of many personal and social corruptions.

And the third one was to submit to the truth. And if we carefully notice them, there was nothing more which was necessary to be mentioned.