And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not.
And Solomon told her all her questions, х dªbaareyhaa (H1697)] - matters, subjects of conversation, including the х chiydowt (H2420)] hard questions (1 Kings 10:1); solved all her enigmas, riddles (in this sense the words are used, Judges 14:12-14) - a species of occupation or favourite pastime, on which the greatest and wisest people of the East have in all ages delighted to exercise their genius and their wit. That the Queen of Sheba's questions were neither of a learned nor philosophical cast, related neither to moral principles nor religious mysteries, but were nothing else than enigmas and riddles, is placed beyond a doubt by the testimony of Josephus ('Antiquities,' b. 8:, ch. 5:, sec. 3), already referred to who informs us that the wise monarch of Israel use to relieve his graver cares by corresponding about these agreeable trifles, both with king Hiram and another Tyrian of great celebrity for his activity, skill, and acuteness in such puzzling subjects, as also by the well-known fact that they form a favourite source of enjoyment with the higher circles in many countries of the East at the present day.
The Talmud, among the wild and foolish fictions with which that collection abounds relates many stories of Solomon, whom the blind admiration of his countrymen has made to play as romantic a part as their Arabian and Persian neighbours have assigned in their well-known tales, to the most renowned of the caliphs. Of a prince so greatly loved and admired as Solomon was by his contemporaries, both at home and abroad, it is natural to suppose that many anecdotes, illustrative of the brilliancy and acuteness of his mind, would be circulated in his day, and be fondly transmitted from father to son as memorials of a great monarch, in whose reign they could boast of having lived; but whether the stories ascribed to him in this strange miscellany refer to events which actually occurred, and which became afterward a part of the traditionary legends of the country, or whether they are pure inventions of the Rabbis, it is now impossible to determine.
Out of this immense mass of stories and anecdotes the following is selected as bearing upon the illustration of this passage, and furnishing a sample of 'the hard questions with which the queen of Sheba proved' Solomon. The legend informs us that the queen having exhausted her whole collection of "questions," which she had studiously made of the most difficult kind, but which the quick and penetrating mind of Solomon easily unravelled, determined on making her last and greatest effort, by which she persuaded herself she would bring to a stand the hitherto invincible powers of the monarch. She formed a small bunch of the rarest and most beautiful exotic flowers, such as were growing in the pleasant gardens of the palace, and with the names and the hues of which she knew the royal student of nature to be well acquainted. In the construction of this artificial bouquet, she had exhausted all the resources of art to render it a perfect imitation of natural beauty, and, carefully concealing from all but her immediate attendants the secret of its origin, she arranged and brought it out in such a manner that it was impossible to judge by the eye whether it was a production of nature or of art, It remained only to choose a proper time, when the king might be taken by surprise, for the trial of her ingenious stratagem; and fixing therefore on the hour when Solomon was seated amid a circle of his courtiers at the gate of his palace, in the course of his daily administration of justice, she presented herself abruptly before him, and holding up her bouquet at such a distance that no scent, had there been any, could have been perceived, she challenged him to tell her whether it was natural or artificial.
The king looked intently at the splendid bouquet, but seemed at a loss for a reply. The whole divan were thrown into confusion by the unexpected occurrence-the first time they had ever seen their king in perplexity-and waiting in silence, trembled for the honour of their prince, when, happily looking around in his distress from the open scaffolding that formed his tribunal, he spotted a swarm of bees fluttering about some wild flowers, and causing the bouquet, without declaring his object, to be placed on the meadow, he soon beheld them, with the greatest satisfaction, refuse to alight on the queen's bouquet, thus giving the most decisive evidence that it was a work of art. His triumph was complete; the whole court rang with applause at the sagacity of the king; and the Queen of Sheba, when she saw this fresh proof of the wisdom of Solomon, "had no more spirit in her."
There was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not - i:e., there were none of the questions she put to the king, nor of the subjects she consulted him about, which he did not understand, nor explain to the satisfaction of his royal visitor.