Commentary
The sarsih: the palace. It was said: the courtyard of the house. Ibn Kathir read: 'I will protect it,' with the hamzah. His reasoning is that he heard: 'Saqa,' so he applied it to the singular. The mamarrad: the smooth one. It has been narrated that Solomon, blessings and peace be upon him, commanded before her arrival to build for him along her path a palace made of white glass, and he caused water to flow beneath it, and he cast into it sea creatures, fish and others. He placed his bed at its head, so he sat upon it, and the birds, jinn, and humans gathered around him. He did this to increase her awe of his matter, to confirm his prophethood, and to strengthen his faith. They claimed that the jinn disliked her marrying him, fearing that she would reveal their secrets to him, as she was the daughter of a jinn. It was said that they feared that a child born to him from her would possess the intelligence of both jinn and humans, and they would emerge from Solomon's kingdom to a kingdom that is more severe and dreadful. They said to him: 'There is something in her mind, and she has the shins of a calf, and her leg is like a donkey's hoof.' So he tested her intelligence by obscuring the throne, and he made the sarsih to discern her shins and legs. When he uncovered them, she was the most beautiful of people in shins and feet, not that she had the shins of a calf. Then he turned his gaze away and called out to her: 'Indeed, it is a sarsih made smooth from glass.'
It was said that she was the reason for the making of the nura: he commanded the devils to make it, and Solomon, blessings and peace be upon him, married her and loved her and kept her in her kingdom. He commanded the jinn to build for her the silahin and Ghamdan. It is mentioned in the Sahih that 'Silahin' is a village. In the section on 'Nassab,' it is stated that the Arabs have two major dialects in Nisibin and similar places, Palestine, Silahin, Basim, and Qansarin: two opinions, one being the adherence to the yā and the inflection of what does not decline, and the second being the inflection of the plural with yā and nūn in the accusative and genitive, and with wāw and nūn in the nominative. In the section on 'Ghamd': Ghamdan is a palace in Yemen. In the section on 'Sana': the factories are the fortresses. He would visit her once a month and stay with her for three days, and she bore him children. It was said that he married her to Dhū Tabā, the king of Hamdān, and appointed him over Yemen, and commanded Zawba'a, the chief of the jinn of Yemen, to obey him, so he built for him the fortresses, and he remained a chief until Solomon died.
I have wronged myself by my disbelief in what has passed. It was said that she thought that Solomon, blessings and peace be upon him, would drown her in the sea, so she said: 'I have wronged myself by my bad opinion of Solomon, blessings and peace be upon him.'
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