1 Kings 10

2and came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, and with camels carrying spices, and gold in great abundance, and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon and had propounded to him all that was in her mind,

3Solomon answered all her questions. There was not a question overlooked by the king which he did not explain to her.

4And when the queen of Saba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had built,

5and his provisions, and the order in which his servants sat at table, and in which the attendants stood; and his dress, and his cup bearers, and his whole burnt offerings which he offered in the house of the Lord, she was struck with surprise,

6and said to the king, It was a true report which I heard in my own country concerning thy knowledge and thy understanding;

7but I did not believe them who told me till I came and my own eyes have seen. Now behold what they told me was not one half. Thou surpassest in good qualities all the report which I heard of thee in my own country.

8Happy thy wives, and happy these servants of thine who stand continually in thy presence and hear all thy wisdom.

9Blessed be the Lord thy God who delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel. Because the Lord thy God loveth to establish Israel forever, therefore He hath made thee king over them, to administer justice according to their righteousness and their demerits.

12And of the hewn timber the king made the wainscottings of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house, and lutes and harps for the musicians. There never had come such hewn timber into the country nor hath any such been anywhere seen to this day.

13And when king Solomon had given the queen of Saba all that she desired, even all that she asked, over and above all that he gave her out of his royal bounty, she set out on her return and went to her own country, she and all her servants.

15besides the tribute of them who were subdued, and what he got from merchants, and from all the bordering kings and lords of the country.

16And king Solomon made three hundred lances of beaten gold, three hundred shekels of gold to each lance;

17and three hundred suits of armour of beaten gold, three pounds of gold to each suit of armour. These king Solomon deposited in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

18The king made also a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold.

19There were six steps up to the throne, and behind the throne were busts of bulls, and on each side of the seat, arms; and two lions standing by the arms;

20and there were twelve lions standing on the steps, six on one side and six on the other. There was not the like in any kingdom.

21Moreover all the vessels for king Solomon’s service were made of gold. The lavers were of gold, and all the utensils of the house of the forest of Lebanon were gilt with gold. None was of silver; for it was not held in estimation in the days of Solomon.

22For the king had at sea a Tharsian fleet with the fleets of Chiram. One came every three years to the king from Tharsis, with gold and silver and stones wrought in a lathe or hewn with a chisel.
This was an arrangement which king Solomon had made to provide for building the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and the wall of Jerusalem, and the citadel; and to fortify the city of David and Assur and Magdol and Gazer and upper Baithoron and Jethermath and all the chariot cities and all the cities for the cavalry, and for all the works which he purposed to construct in Jerusalem and in all the country, in order to keep in subjection all the remains of the Chettites and the Amorites and the Pherezites and the Chananites and the Evites and the Jebusites and the Gergasites, who were not of the children of Israel.
The children of them who had been left with him in the land, whom the Israelites could not wholly extirpate, these Solomon subjected to a tribute which continueth to this day. But from the children of Israel he exacted nothing; because they were his warriors and his servants, his chiefs and his nobles, his charioteers and his horsemen.

24And all the kings of the land sought an interview with Solomon, to hear his wisdom which the Lord put in his heart.

25And they brought, everyone as gifts, vessels of gold and raiment and stacte and spices and horses and mules and this every year.

26And Solomon had four thousand mares for chariots and twelve thousand cavalry. The mares he kept in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. And he was supreme over all the kings, from the river to the land of the Philistines and to the borders of Egypt.

27So the king made gold and silver to abound in Jerusalem like stones; and cedars like the sycamore trees in the plain.

28Now Solomon’s horses came from Egypt and from Thekoua. The king’s merchants got them from Thekoua by barter,

29but from Egypt a chariot came up for a hundred shekels of silver and a horse for fifty, and at this rate they came by sea, for all the kings of the Chettites, and for the kings of Syria.