She said, 'O Council, pronounce to me concerning my affair; I am not used to decide an affair until you bear me witness.' 32 They replied: 'We are possessors of force and great might. It is for you to command, so consider what you will' 33 She said: Lo! kings, when they enter a township, ruin it and make the honour of its people shame. Thus will they do. 34 But indeed, I will send to them a gift and see with what [reply] the messengers will return." 35 So when [the envoy] came to Solomon he said, "What! Are you offering me wealth? But that which God has given me is better than that which He has given you. Yet you rejoice in your gift. 36 Return to them, for we will surely come to them with soldiers that they will be powerless to encounter, and we will surely expel them therefrom in humiliation, and they will be debased." 37 He said, 'O Council, which one of you will bring me her throne, before they come to me in surrender?' 38 An efreet of the jinns said, 'I will bring it to thee, before thou risest from thy place; I have strength for it 39 Said one who had knowledge of the Book, “I will bring it in your majesty’s presence before you bat your eyelid”; then when he saw it set in his presence*, Sulaiman said, “This is of the favours of my Lord; so that He may test me whether I give thanks or am ungrateful; and whoever gives thanks only gives thanks for his own good; and whoever is ungrateful – then indeed my Lord is the Independent (Not Needing Anything), the Owner Of All Praise.” (A miracle which occurred through one of Allah’s friends.) 40 Solomon said: " Set the throne before her casually, and let us see whether she gets to the Truth or is one of those who are not guided to what is right." 41 When she arrived, they asked her: "Is your throne like this?" She said: "As though this is it. We had come to have knowledge and already submitted." 42 but that she served, apart from God, barred her, for she was of a people of unbelievers.' 43 [After a while] she was told: "Enter this court!" - but when she saw it, she thought that it was a fathomless expanse of water, and she bared her legs. Said he: "Behold, it is [but] a court smoothly paved with glass!" Cried she: "O my Sustainer! I have been sinning against myself thy worshipping aught but Thee]: but [now] I have surrendered myself, with Solomon, unto the Sustainer of all the worlds!" 44