The Queen of Sheba and Her Only Son Menyelek (Kebra Nagast)

Kebra Nagast drape them with the draperies of Zion, and I will take Zion, and will dig a hole in the ground, and will set Zion there, until we journey and take it away with us thither. And I will not tell the matter to the king until we have travelled far.”

And they each gave him ten dîdrachmas, and this money amounted to one hundred and forty dîdrachmas, and he took them and gave them to a carpenter, who straightway fashioned a good piece of work from the remains of the wood of the house of the sanctuary, and Azâryâs rejoiced and showed it to his brethren.

46. How They Made a Plan Concerning Zion And while Azâryâs was asleep at night the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, “Take to thee four goats, each a yearling—now they shall be for your sins, thyself, and ‘Êlmeyâs, and ‘Abîs, and Mâkrî—and four pure sheep, yearlings also, and an ox whereon no yoke hath ever been laid. And thou shalt offer up the ox as a sacrifice on the east side of her (i.e. Zion), and the sheep and the goats to the right, and left thereof, and at the west of it, which is close to its exit. And your Lord David shall speak to Solomon the King and shall say unto him, ‘One thing I ask from thee, O father, I would offer up a sacrifice to the holy city Jerusalem, and to my Lady Zion, the holy and heavenly Tabernacle of the Law of God.’ And Solomon shall say unto him, ‘Do so.’ And David shall say unto him, ‘Let the son of the priest offer up sacrifice on my behalf, even as he knoweth’; and he will give thee the command, and thou shalt offer up the sacrifice. And thou shalt bring forth the Tabernacle of the Law of God after thou hast offered up the sacrifice, and I will again show thee what thou shalt do in respect of it as to bringing it out; for this is from God. For Israel hath provoked God to wrath, and for this reason He will make the Tabernacle of the Law of God to depart from him.”

And when Azâryâs awoke from his dream he rejoiced greatly, and his heart and his mind were clear, and he remembered everything that the Angel of the Lord had shown him in the night, and how he had sealed him [with the sign of the Cross], and given him strength and heartened him.

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