21.2
The Kebra Nagast 21.2 · She is the queen of Ethiopia📜 Bezold's printed edition
Having quoted the Gospel, the book explains it.
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ወዘይቤ፡1
wa-za-yǝbe
And where it saysand what it said
ንግሥተ፡2
nǝgǝśta
“the queen of
አዜብ፡3
ʾAzeb
the South”,the south wind
, ይእቲ፤4
yǝʾǝti
she is
ንግሥተ፡5
nǝgǝśta
the queen of
ኢትዮጵያ፡6
ʾItyoṗyā
Ethiopia.
. And where it says “the queen of the South”, she is the queen of Ethiopia.
And where it says “the queen of the South”, she is the queen of Ethiopia.
ንግሥተ፡ ኢትዮጵያ
the queen of Ethiopia
21.3
The Kebra Nagast 21.3 · Beautiful, and wise📜 Bezold's printed edition
The book describes the queen before her journey north.
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And she, the queen of the South, was very beautiful in her looks and in her radiance, and in knowledge and understanding that God gave her, so that she would go to Jerusalem to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
The Gospels never say where the queen of the South came from. The Hebrew Bible calls her the queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10), and Dillmann’s dictionary lists that phrase, nǝgǝśta Sābāʾ, under the word for queen. The Kebra Nagast quotes Jesus’ saying about her and then gives its reading in six words: she is the queen of Ethiopia.
ʾAzeb, “the South”, is first of all a wind: Dillmann translates it auster, the south wind, and gives the Greek notos. On this one identification rests the rest of the book, Solomon’s son Menelik, the Ark carried to Aksum, and seven centuries of Ethiopian kings who called themselves Solomon’s heirs.