And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train,.... With many of her courtiers and principal men, as well as with a large retinue of servants:
with camels that bare spices; her country abounded both with camels and spices; Isaiah 60:6,
Jeremiah 6:20, and as Pliny f observes, who says their spices used to be carried on camels, particularly frankincense, for which Sheba was famous, and is therefore called by him "regio thurifera", the frankincense country g, being to be had nowhere else; and Strabo h speaks of "cinamon, cassia", and other spices here in such plenty, that the inhabitants burnt the wood of them for fuel; and Diodorus Siculus i represents this country as exceeding odoriferous, and as having besides the above spices, balsam, myrrh, calamus, costus, and others, in such abundance that they heated their ovens with them:
and very much gold; see 1 Kings 10:10, the gold of Sheba is spoken of in Psalms 72:15 and Pliny k observes, that the Sabeans are exceeding rich, as in other things, so in gold; and Diodorus Siculus l and Strabo m speak of gold found here in large lumps, very pure, and of a fine colour:
and precious stones; as crystals, emeralds, beryls, and chrysolites, mentioned by Diodorus n as in those parts; and a late traveller says o, that Arabia Felix abounds with balsam, myrrh, cassia, manna, dates, gold, frankincense, and pearl:
and when she was come to Solomon; unto his palace, and admitted into his presence:
she communed with him of all that was in her heart; which she had in her mind to discourse with him about, and which she had laid up in her memory for that purpose; and some things which she had kept to herself, and had never imparted to any before, as some think; all which she had full liberty from Solomon to propound unto him.
f Nat. Hist. l. 12. c. 14. g Ibid. "----Molles sua thura Sabaei", Virg. Georg l. 1. v. 57. & l. 2. v. 117. Thurilegos Arabes, Ovid. Fast. l. 4. Vid. Plant. Trinum. Act. 4. Sc. 2. v. 89. h Geograph. l. 16. p. 535. i Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 132. k Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 28. l Ut supra, (Bibliothec. l. 2.) p. 133. l. 3. p. 181. m Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 16. p. 535.) n Ut supra, (Bibliothec. l. 2.) p. 134. & l. 3. p. 181. o Ovington's Voyage to Surat, p. 421.