announced the bird's desertion to the most
wise King.

"Soar aloft," commanded Solomon sternly, "and find the Hoopoe that I may
punish him. I will pluck off his feathers that he may feel the
scorching heat of the sun as his carelessness has caused me to do."

The Eagle soared heavenward, until the earth beneath him looked like a
bowl turned upside down. Then he poised on level wings and looked around
in every direction to discover the truant. Soon he espied the Hoopoe
flying swiftly from the south. The Eagle swooped down and would have
seized the culprit roughly in his strong talons, but the Hoopoe begged
him for Solomon's sake to be gentle.

"For Solomon's sake!" cried the Eagle. "Do you dare to name the King
whom you have injured? He has discovered your absence and in his
righteous anger will punish you severely."

"Lead me to him," replied the Hoopoe. "I know that he will forgive me
when he hears where I have been and what I have to tell him."

The Eagle led him to the King, who with a wrathful face was sitting on
his throne. The Hoopoe trembled and drooped his feathers humbly, but
when Solomon would have crushed him in his mighty fist the bird cried,--

"Remember, King, that one day you also must give an account of your
sins. Let me not therefore be condemned unheard."

"And if I hear you, what excuse can you have to offer?" answered
Solomon, frowning. But this was his favorite bird and he hoped that
there might be some reason for sparing him.

"Well," said the Hoopoe, "at Mecca I met a Hoopoe of my acquaintance who
told me so wonderful a tale of the marvelous Kingdom of Sheba in Arabia
that I could not resist the temptation to visit that country of gold and
precious stones. And there, indeed, I saw the most prodigious treasures;
but best of all, O King, more glorious than gold, more precious than
rare jewels, I saw Queen Balkis, the most beautiful of queens."

"Tell me of this Queen," said Solomon, loosening his rough grasp upon
the Hoopoe. So it was, say the Mussulmans, that a bird told Solomon of
the great Queen whose journey to Jerusalem is described in the Bible.

The Hoopoe told of her power and glory, her riches, her wisdom, and her
beauty, until Solomon sighed a great sigh and said, "It seems too good
to be true! But we shall see."

So the King wrote a letter to Balkis, bidding her follow the guidance of
fate and come to the court of the wise King. This note he sealed with
musk, stamped with his