فَمَكَثَ غَيْرَ بَعِيدٍ فَقَالَ أَحَطتُ بِمَا لَمْ تُحِطْ بِهِۦ وَجِئْتُكَ مِن سَبَإٍۭ بِنَبَإٍ يَقِينٍ · إِنِّى وَجَدتُّ ٱمْرَأَةً تَمْلِكُهُمْ وَأُوتِيَتْ مِن كُلِّ شَىْءٍ وَلَهَا عَرْشٌ عَظِيمٌ
fa-makatha ghayra baʿīdin fa-qāla aḥaṭtu bimā lam tuḥiṭ bihī wa jiʾtuka min Sabaʾin bi-nabaʾin yaqīn · innī wajadtu'mraʾatan tamlikuhum wa ūtiyat min kulli shayʾin wa lahā ʿarshun ʿaẓīm
"He did not stay away long, and said: 'I have encompassed what you have not encompassed, and I bring you from Sabaʾ a report that is certain. I found a woman ruling over them; she has been given of everything, and she has a mighty throne.'"
The root م-ك-ث: to stay in a place, to wait. The root was treated in al-Zukhruf at 43/77, and its occurrences in the Qurʾān were recorded there — this verse was cited there as well. I do not repeat it here.
Ghayra baʿīdin — "for no long [while]." An observation about the word order: the duration is given not with a number but with a negation. What is reported is thus not how long it took but that it did not take long.
The root ح-و-ط was worked out in al-Baqara at 2/255, and the finding there was this: to go round a thing, to encompass it; ḥāʾiṭ — a wall. And the distinction recorded there is decisive here: what is denied is not knowing but encompassing. Wa lā yuḥīṭūna bi-shayʾin min ʿilmihī — a person can know; he cannot go round a thing and take in the whole of it. I do not repeat the analysis of the root; I rely on that treatment.
And in Fuṣṣilat at 41/54 the same root occurred from the other side: innahū bi-kulli shayʾin muḥīṭ — He is the one who encompasses all things.
| Place | Expression | Who encompasses |
|---|---|---|
| al-Baqara 2/255 | wa lā yuḥīṭūna bi-shayʾin min ʿilmih | Man cannot encompass — God's knowledge |
| Fuṣṣilat 41/54 | bi-kulli shayʾin muḥīṭ | God — all things |
| al-Naml 27/22 | aḥaṭtu bimā lam tuḥiṭ bih | The bird — what the king could not encompass |
| al-Naml 27/84 | wa lam tuḥīṭū bihā ʿilmā | Those who deny did not encompass — the signs |
Four occurrences; and al-Naml's two stand at the two ends of the sūra. This is a weave that can be verified from the text.
The one who frames the sentence is a bird, speaking to a king who inspects the birds of his army one by one. And what it says is that the king's knowledge has a limit.
1. The verb is the verb of encompassing, not of knowing. The bird does not say "I have known what you do not know" — it says "I have encompassed what you could not encompass." The limit drawn in al-Baqara is applied here to a difference of scale between created beings. 2. The sentence comes immediately after verse 16. There Solomon had said ūtīnā min kulli shayʾ ("we have been given of everything"). Verse 22 shows the limit of that sentence. 3. And the knowledge given in verse 15 meets a deficiency here. The narrative that the sūra opened with knowledge goes on with the limit of knowledge.
I record this as my own reading: the sūra does not distribute knowledge along a scale of rank. The smallest, the one reckoned lowest, brings news from a place the greatest could not reach. And this prepares the ruling at verse 65 of the sūra: only God knows the unseen — the knowledge of everyone else is completed by someone else's.
The weave of sound is worth recording, and it is a datum of the text: Sabaʾ and nabaʾ — two words on the same pattern and rhyming.
سَبَإ — the name of a people who lived in southern Arabia (in the region of present-day Yemen). It was treated in Sabaʾ at 34/15, and it was recorded there: it occurs in two places in the Qurʾān — there and here; it is reported that the word is transmitted both as the name of a person and as the name of a tribe, and no definite ruling was issued. I rely on that treatment.
نَبَأ — root ن-ب-أ: news that matters, news with a consequence. The lexicographers distinguish the word from khabar: every nabaʾ is news, but not every piece of news is a nabaʾ — because a nabaʾ is news that removes ignorance and produces a great result.
And its qualifier must be recorded: yaqīn. The root ي-ق-ن — the same as the yūqinūn of the sūra's third verse and the istayqanat of verse 14. The news the bird brings is thus qualified with the very word named at the sūra's opening as an attribute of the believers.
And Moses's sentence at verse 7 should be recalled: sa-ātīkum minhā bi-khabarin. The bringing of news is spoken of twice in the sūra:
| Verse | Who | What he will bring |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Moses | bi-khabarin — indefinite |
| 22 | The hoopoe | bi-nabaʾin yaqīn — great news, and certain |
| No. | Expression | What |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | imraʾatan tamlikuhum | The ruler — a woman |
| 2 | wa ūtiyat min kulli shayʾ | Her means |
| 3 | wa lahā ʿarshun ʿaẓīm | The throne — the emblem of sovereignty |
The second item is exactly the sentence of verse 16: ūtīnā min kulli shayʾ. The same construction, once for Solomon and once for the queen. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.
I record this as an observation: the report is given in language that does not belittle the other side. The bird uses for the other party the very expression used of its own king.
The Qurʾān does not give the name of the woman who ruled. A name is transmitted in the classical sources; since it does not occur in the Qurʾān it is not used in this commentary. In the same way, the reports about the dates, the extent and the end of her reign are not entered into.
عَرْش — root ع-ر-ش: to raise up, to set up an arbour. In Arabic it covers the throne, the arbour, the raised and roofed structure, and it is used as the emblem of sovereignty. The root was treated in al-Ḥadīd at 57/4, and this verse was already cited there. I do not repeat it here.
And the word will occur five more times in this sūra: 23, 26, 38, 41, 42. One of these (26) is for God; four are for the queen's throne. It will be set out in a table in the next section.