'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful' His saying, the Exalted and Majestic: "He said, 'Make her throne unrecognizable for her, so we may see whether she will be guided or will be one of those who are not guided.'" "So when she came, it was said, 'Is this your throne?' She said, 'It is as if it is.' And we had been given knowledge before her, and we had been Muslims." "And what she used to worship besides Allah prevented her, for she was of a disbelieving people." "It was said to her, 'Enter the palace.' But when she saw it, she thought it was a body of water and uncovered her shins. He said, 'Indeed, it is a palace made smooth with glass.' She said, 'My Lord, indeed I have wronged myself, and I submit with Solomon to Allah, Lord of the worlds.'" Solomon intended by this 'making unrecognizable' to test her and to observe her, and to increase her astonishment. A group narrated that the jinn sensed from Solomon or thought that he might marry Bilqis, so they disliked that and accused her in front of him of being irrational and not discerning, and that her leg was like the hoof of an animal. So he tested her intellect and distinguished her by making her throne unrecognizable, and he tested the matter of her leg by the matter of the palace to make her uncover her shins in front of him. Abu Haywah read: "she will see" with a dammah on the ra. The making unrecognizable of the throne is a change of its description and covering some of it, and Ibn Abbas, Mujahid, and Al-Dhahak said: its making unrecognizable is by adding to it and subtracting from it. This is objectionable because it is her right - on this - to say: 'It is not like it' and she would be truthful. Her saying, 'It is as if it is' is a clear precaution, and similar is His saying, the Exalted: "as if it were a boiling water" [Fussilat: 34]. Al-Hasan ibn al-Fadl said: They confused her, so she was confused. And if they had said: 'This is your throne?' she would have said: 'Yes.' And in the speech there is an omission, the meaning of which is: 'Make her throne unrecognizable, and see what her response will be when she is asked about it.' So when she came, it was said: 'Is this your throne?' And Solomon, peace be upon him, said at that time: "And we had been given knowledge before her" - this is from him in the context of enumerating the favor of Allah, the Exalted, upon him and upon his forefathers. And His saying, the Exalted: "And what she used to worship prevented her" - it is possible that this is from the words of the Prophet of Allah, Solomon, peace be upon him, and it is possible that it is from the words of Allah, blessed and exalted, informing Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him. And 'what prevented' refers to what she used to worship, meaning from faith and the like. Al-Rummani said: It refers to the awareness of the throne; for the believer is perceptive and alert, while the disbeliever is vile. Or the 'preventer' may be Solomon, peace be upon him, as said by Al-Tabari, or it may be Allah, the Exalted and Majestic. And since 'prevented her' means (prevented her), it has surpassed - on this interpretation - without a preposition, otherwise it does not exceed except with 'from'. The majority of people read: 'Indeed, she' with a kasrah on the hamzah, and Sa'id ibn Jubair and Ibn Abi Ablah read: 'That she' with a fathah on the hamzah, and this is on the assumption of: 'That is because she,' or as a substitute for 'what,' as said by Muhammad ibn Kab al-Qurazi.

And when Bilqis arrived, Solomon, peace be upon him, commanded the jinn to make for him a palace. It is the surface in the courtyard without a roof. She made it built like a glassy structure, filled it with water, and spread fish and frogs in it. It was covered with transparent glass. Thus it came to be a palace. The palace also refers to any tall building, and all of this is from the declaration, which is the profound announcement. A throne was placed for Solomon in its center. When Bilqis reached him, she was told: 'Enter to the Prophet ﷺ.' She saw the water and was frightened, thinking that he intended for her to drown. She was astonished at the fact that his throne was on the water and saw what terrified her. She had no choice but to comply with the command, so she uncovered her legs. Solomon saw her legs, which were intact, except that she had a lot of hair. When she reached this point, Solomon, peace be upon him, said to her: 'Indeed, it is a palace made smooth from glass.' The term 'made smooth' refers to something polished and smooth. From it is the term 'amrad,' and the tree 'mardaa' is one that has no leaves. 'Made smooth' also means elongated, and from it, a fortress is called 'mard.' At that point, Bilqis submitted, surrendered, and accepted Islam, and she acknowledged her wrongdoing. It is narrated that Solomon, peace be upon him, married her at that time and settled her in the Levant. This was said by Al-Dhahhak. Sa'id ibn Abdul Aziz said in the book of Al-Naqash: He married her and returned her to her kingdom in Yemen. He would come to her by the wind every month once. She bore him a son whom he named Dawud, who died during his lifetime. 'Ma'a' is a preposition, and it is said to be a letter built on the opening. However, if the 'ain' is made silent, there is no disagreement that it is a letter that has a meaning.

Ibn Kathir read alone - in the narration of Al-Ikhrit - 'about her leg' with a hamzah. Abu Ali said: It is weak, and likewise, the hamzah is weak in the reading of Qanbal: 'He uncovers her leg.' As for the hamzah of 'with the leg' and 'on her leg,' it is a well-known dialect in the hamzah of the waw that precedes it with a dammah. Abu Ali narrated that Abu Hayyah Al-Namiri used to hamzah every waw that preceded it with a dammah, and I recite:

The beloved of the two who are bound to you is the one who is steadfast...

And the reason is that the dammah stands on the waw when there is no barrier between them. Ibn Mas'ud read: 'about her leg.' It is narrated that when Solomon, peace be upon him, intended to remove the hair from her legs, he was concerned about the burden of the razor on her. It is said that she said: 'No iron has ever touched me.' So he commanded the jinn to be gentle in its removal, and they made a depilatory that had not been used before among the nations.

And these matters that Solomon, peace be upon him, did: from bringing the throne, and constructing the palace, and other than that, he intended by them to astonish her, just as she had previously followed the path of the kings of the world in that by sending maidens and young boys, and she proposed in the matter of the cup and the two pearls.