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• The Zohar (II, 104b-105a) devotes extensive discussion to the Queen of Sheba, identifying her as a powerful sorceress-queen who ruled through knowledge of the Sitra Achra and came to test whether Solomon's wisdom truly surpassed the dark arts. Her riddles were not intellectual puzzles but kabbalistic challenges — each one a trap designed to expose a gap in Solomon's mastery. He answered them all because his wisdom encompassed both the holy and the impure sides, leaving no blind spot the Other Side could exploit.
• The Zohar (II, 105a) further teaches that when the Queen of Sheba saw Solomon's wisdom, his palace, and the ascent by which he went up to the Temple, "there was no more spirit in her" — meaning that the spirit of the Sitra Achra that had empowered her was expelled by the overwhelming holiness radiating from the king. This is the paradigm for how the Tzaddik defeats the agents of the Other Side: not by engaging in their sorcery but by manifesting such concentrated light that darkness simply cannot persist.
• Solomon's throne of ivory overlaid with gold, with its twelve lions and unique construction, is described in Zohar (III, 182a) as a physical Merkavah — a throne-chariot modeled on the divine throne in Ezekiel's vision. The six steps correspond to the six Sefirot of Zeir Anpin, and the lions represent the archangelic guardians of each level. When Solomon sat upon it, he was seated in the Merkavah itself, operating from within the divine war-chariot.
• The gold of Tarshish, the silver made as common as stones, and the apes and peacocks (or ivory and monkeys) are understood in Zohar Chadash (Bereishit, 12c) as tributes from the spiritual domains that Solomon's wisdom had conquered. Each exotic material represents a different stratum of creation acknowledging the Temple's sovereignty. The abundance was not materialism but the visible overflow of a spiritual economy functioning at full capacity.
• The Zohar (I, 148a) states that all the kings of the earth sought Solomon's presence because the light of the Shekhinah on his face was irresistible — a gravitational pull that even the most powerful servants of the Other Side could not resist. This was the apex of the 613 mitzvot's protective and projective power: not just defense but active dominion. Yet the Zohar immediately adds a note of warning, for this very glory would become the instrument of Solomon's downfall if he turned from the source.
• Bava Batra 15b records that Job was a contemporary of the Queen of Sheba. The Queen of Sheba's visit is the supreme test of Solomon's wisdom against foreign second-heaven intelligence — she comes with "hard questions," the classic demonic interrogation strategy. The tzaddik answers every question; the demonic is silenced.
• Sanhedrin 104b records that those who despise Torah wisdom will be judged by the nations who sought it out. The Queen of Sheba's confession — "the half was not told me" — is the gentile world's acknowledgment that third-heaven wisdom exceeds all second-heaven intelligence. The Sitra Achra's claim to superior knowledge collapses before the fully equipped tzaddik.
• Shabbat 58a discusses gold ornaments and their relation to Shabbat holiness. The 120 talents of gold the Queen brings, along with spices and precious stones, represent the material wealth of second-heaven-dominated gentile civilization flowing into the service of the third-heaven kingdom. Solomon's trade routes in this chapter are a spiritual conquest map.
• Yoma 38b records that the gates of the Temple were made of Lebanon cedar so aromatic that Jericho could smell the incense. The Queen of Sheba's "hard questions" before Solomon's wisdom parallel this: the genuine presence of third-heaven wisdom is so overwhelming that even the most hardened second-heaven agent must acknowledge its reality.
• Ketubot 17b records that one should give honor to a royal procession. The Queen's entrance and departure frame a chapter that represents the maximum reach of Solomon's influence: the nations come to him, and the Sitra Achra cannot prevent it. The 666 talents of gold arriving annually is a number the Book of Revelation will revisit — here it flows toward the Temple; in Revelation's endgame, its mirror image marks the Beast.
• **The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon** — Surah 27:22-44 gives an extended account of the Queen of Sheba (Bilqis) learning of Solomon through a hoopoe bird, sending gifts, and visiting his court. When she enters his palace with its glass floor, she mistakes it for water. She declares "My Lord, indeed I have wronged myself, and I submit with Solomon to God, Lord of the worlds." This directly parallels 1 Kings 10:1-13 where the Queen comes to test Solomon with hard questions and is overwhelmed by his wisdom and splendor.
• **Solomon's Wealth Confirmed** — Surah 27:36 records Solomon dismissing the Queen's gifts as inferior to what God had given him, paralleling the 1 Kings 10:14-25 catalog of Solomon's extraordinary wealth.