and they play a zero-sum game. This, at any rate, is the case for the rabbinic writers of the tale. The biblical account (which appears in 1 Kings 10:1–13; 2 Chron. 9:1–12) is short and enigmatic, perhaps concealing earlier traditions and certainly giving rise to later elaborations.1 The text that is the focus of this chapter appears in midrash on Proverbs (Midrash Mishle), dating between the ninth and the eleventh century,2 and tells the following tale:3
Another interpretation: “But where can wisdom be found?” (Job 28:12). This refers to the Queen of Sheba, who heard of Solomon’s wisdom. She said: I will go and see whether or not he is wise. From where [is the scriptural proof] that she had heard of Solomon’s wisdom? As it is said, “The Queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, through the name of the Lord, and she came to test him with riddles” (1 Kings 10:1).4 What are riddles? R. Jeremiah said: By means of proverbs.5
She said to him: Are you Solomon, about whom and whose wisdom I have heard?
He said to her: Yes.
She said to him: If I were to ask you one thing, would you answer me?
He replied to her: “For the Lord grants wisdom; knowledge and discernment are by His decree” (Prov. 2:6).
She said to him: Seven exit and nine enter, two pour and one drinks.
He said to her: Surely, seven days of menstruation exit and nine months of pregnancy enter, two breasts pour and the baby drinks.
She said to him: You are a great sage, but if I ask you another question, will you answer me?
He said to her: “For the Lord grants wisdom” (Prov. 2:6).
She said to him: What is [the case of] a woman who says to her son: Your father is my father, your grandfather is my husband, you are my son, and I am your sister?
He said to her: Surely, the daughters of Lot say to their sons: Your father is my father, your grandfather is my husband, you are my son, and I am your sister.
She performed yet another test in front of him. She brought before him boys and girls, all of the same appearance, all of the same height, all wearing the same clothing.
She said to him: Separate the males from the females.
He immediately signaled his eunuchs, who brought him parched grain and nuts. He began to distribute them. The boys, who were not ashamed, gathered them up in their clothing. The girls, who were ashamed, gathered them up in their kerchiefs.
He said to her: These are the males and those are the females.
She said to him: My son, you are a great sage.
She performed yet another test in front of him. She brought circumcised and uncircumcised before him, all of the same height and all wearing the same clothing.
She said to him: Separate the circumcised from the uncircumcised.
He immediately signaled to the high priest, and he opened the ark of the covenant. The circumcised among them bowed to half their height, and not only that but their faces were filled with the radiance of the Shekhinah. The uncircumcised among them immediately fell prostrate.
He said to her: These are circumcised and those are uncircumcised.
She said: From where do you know?
He said to her: From Balaam, is it not written, “Who beholds visions from the Almighty, [prostrate but with eyes unveiled]”? (Num. 24:4). Had he not fallen, he would not have seen anything. And if you do not wish to learn from Balaam, come learn from Job, for when his three friends came to comfort him, he said to them: “But I, like you, have a mind, and am not less than [lo nofel me] you” (Job 12:3). I do not fall like you.6
At that moment, she said to him: “I did not believe the reports until I came and saw with my own eyes that not even the half had been told me; your wisdom and wealth surpass the reports that I heard. How fortunate are your men, and how fortunate are these your courtiers who are always in attendance on you and can hear your wisdom! Praised be the Lord your God, Who delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel. It is because of the Lord’s everlasting love for Israel that He made you king to administer justice and righteousness.” (1 Kings 10:7–9)
The riddling tale involves two main actors—Solomon and the Queen of Sheba—and a distinct mode of communication between them: riddles. It also involves what Hillis Miller terms “possible selves.” According to him, characters that operate in narratives allow their addressees (readers or listeners) to “experiment with possible selves and to learn to take … place in the real world, to play … [a] part there.”7 Solomon, as we will see later on, is a prototypical rabbinical figure and as such he engages in midrash. The Queen of Sheba constitutes an “other,” in her gender and in her religion; her discursive weapon, riddles, are also “other.” The riddles thus serve as a possible discursive other holding up a mirror to the midrashic self. In Miller’s terms, the Queen of Sheba and her riddles are “possible selves.”
As is usual with rabbinic tales, this one comes to us devoid of its contexts. When (if ever) was the story performed? For which audience? We are unlikely ever to have answers to these questions or to others that would provide a framework for the tale. Today, however, we are well aware that context is a constructed, rather than a given, trait of cultural phenomena. While we cannot recover the contexts, we have at hand “co-texts” in the form of other relevant texts in relation to which the story can be read. In other words, the co-texts are a construct of a given reading practice. The co-textual space designates a field of meaning in which our text resides.8 This space broadens or limits possible meanings when we examine the way in which the riddles in the riddling tale function.
In my discussion of the tale of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, I will first address the rhetorical characteristic of this form of discourse, from an a-temporal (ahistorical) and a-cultural point of view, by positing the riddle’s rhetorical potential. I will continue this line of investigation by considering the diachronic aspect of this form of discourse, which will inform us of the place that the riddle occupies within Jewish culture. The salient question will be: Do models of riddling tales or riddles exist within the culture? I will also look at similar forms of discourse in neighboring cultures.
The co-textual environment, the “sound box” of the riddling story in Midrash Mishle, consists of other texts, three of which will be discussed here: the biblical story of the meeting of the two leaders; other traditions about the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon and their encounter; and traditions of riddles and riddling tales in the cultural environment of Midrash Mishle.
The Riddle
Riddles are a form of discursive other, in relationship to and against which the midrashic self is examined. By identifying the riddles as an other in rabbinic texts, I mean that they are discursively unusual and anomalous in the rabbinic corpus; if we identify a pivotal rabbinic self with the discourse of midrash, riddles are clearly situated outside that discursive center and can potentially serve as a vantage point from which the center is reflected upon. In order to understand the intense reflective quality that the riddles may hold in our text, we should briefly address the biblical and rabbinic models of riddles and elaborate on the rhetorical and cognitive aspects of the genre.
Riddles make rare appearances in rabbinic literature. In chapter 1 of Lamentations
