I had lived in her capital city for several years, and she had summoned
me before her, and had inquired about the places I had visited and the
things I had seen. What I said about this wonderful woman and the
admirable administration of her empire interested Solomon very much,
and he was never tired of hearing me talk about her. At one time
I believe he thought of sending me as an ambassador to her, but afterward
gave up this notion, as I did not possess the rank or position which
would have qualified me to represent him and his court; so he sent a
suitable delegation, and, after a great deal of negotiation and
diplomatic by-play, the queen actually determined to come to see Solomon.
Soon after her arrival with her great retinue, she saw me, and immediately
recognized me, and the first thing she said to me was that she perceived
I had grown a good deal older than when I had been living in her domains.
This delighted me, for before coming to Jerusalem I had allowed my hair
and beard to grow, and had dispensed with as much as possible of my
ordinary erect mien and lightness of step; for I was very much afraid, if
I were not careful, that the wise king would find out that there was
something irregular in my longevity, and an old man may continue to look
old much longer than a middle-aged man can continue to appear middle-aged.

"It was a great advantage to me to find myself admitted to a certain
intimacy with both the king and his visitor the queen. As I was a subject
of neither of them, they seemed to think this circumstance allowed a
little more familiarity than otherwise they would have shown. Besides, my
age had a great deal to do with the freedom with which they spoke to me.
Each of them seemed anxious to know everything I could tell about the
other, and I would sometimes be subjected to embarrassing questions.

"There is a great deal of extravagance and perversion in the historical
and traditional accounts of the tricks which these two royal personages