Qualla: Sheba https://qualla.com/sheba en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:31 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/t/4/8/p/sheba-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Sheba https://qualla.com/sheba Sheba: Introduction https://qualla.com/sheba/ Photo credit H. Grobe, CC BY-SA 3.0. She arrives unnamed in the Hebrew Bible, bearing spices, gold, and hard questions for King Solomon. Ethiopian tradition calls her Makeda. Arab and Islamic tradition knows her as Bilqis. The Queen of Sheba is one of history's most enduring figures -- a woman whose visit to Jerusalem appears in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scripture, and whose legacy is claimed by both Yemen and Ethiopia to this day. But behind the legend stood a real kingdom. Sheba, or Saba, emerged on the edge of the Sayhad desert sometime between 1000 and 800 BCE and grew into the dominant power of South Arabia, sustained by monsoon-irrigated agriculture, the lucrative frankincense and spice trades, and a willingness to wage brutal wars of conquest.

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Image: H. Grobe | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/4/8/p/sheba-wp/t48p-sheba-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Sheba: Frankincense and Empire https://qualla.com/sheba/ Photo credit Ahmed'Aliaan, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Sabaeans built their wealth on aromatic resins. The deserts of South Arabia produced frankincense and myrrh in quantities the ancient world craved for religious rituals, medicine, and luxury. Saba controlled the caravan routes that carried these goods north through the Arabia...

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Image: Ahmed'Aliaan | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/4/8/p/sheba-wp/t48p-sheba-frankincense-and-empire.mp3 0:06 2 full Sheba: The Conquests of Karib'il Watar https://qualla.com/sheba/ Photo credit Dan from Brussels, Europe, CC BY-SA 2.0. Saba reached its zenith between the eighth and sixth centuries BCE, driven by the military campaigns of Karib'il Watar. Two lengthy inscriptions discovered at the Temple of Almaqah at Sirwah document eight separate campaigns that brought much of South Arabia under Sabaean control...

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Image: Dan from Brussels, Europe | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/4/8/p/sheba-wp/t48p-sheba-the-conquests-of-karibil-watar.mp3 0:06 3 full Sheba: A Slow Unraveling https://qualla.com/sheba/ Photo credit Almokad, CC BY-SA 4.0. After the sixth century BCE, the Sabaean grip loosened. Neighboring kingdoms -- Qataban, Hadhramaut, and especially Ma'in -- expanded at Saba's expense, pushing it back to its core territory around Ma'rib and Sirwah. Leaders abandoned the grand title of Mukarrib for the more mode...

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Image: Almokad | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/4/8/p/sheba-wp/t48p-sheba-a-slow-unraveling.mp3 0:06 4 full Sheba: Resurrection and Final Fall https://qualla.com/sheba/ Photo credit Antti Salonen, CC BY-SA 3.0. Saba was not finished. When the first Himyarite Kingdom disintegrated, the Sabaeans reemerged and flourished for another century and a half. This second kingdom differed from the first in important ways. Power had shifted from the oasis cities on the desert margin to the highland...

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Image: Antti Salonen | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/4/8/p/sheba-wp/t48p-sheba-resurrection-and-final-fall.mp3 0:06 5 full Sheba: Three Faiths, One Queen https://qualla.com/sheba/ Photo credit Dan from Brussels, Europe, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Kingdom of Sheba left its deepest mark not in stone but in scripture. The Hebrew Bible describes the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon with caravans of spices and gold, testing him with riddles. The Quran elaborates the encounter in Surah 27, where Solomon's messenger, a hoopoe...

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Image: Dan from Brussels, Europe | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/t/4/8/p/sheba-wp/t48p-sheba-three-faiths-one-queen.mp3 0:06 6 full