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Zimbabwe--Balkis, almost as wise as the Most Wise Suleiman-bin-Daoud
himself, said, 'It is nothing, O Queens! A Butterfly has made
complaint against his wife because she quarrelled with him, and it
has pleased our Lord Suleiman-bin-Daoud to teach her a lesson in
low-speaking and humbleness, for that is counted a virtue among
the wives of the butterflies.'

Then up and spoke an Egyptian Queen--the daughter of a Pharoah--and
she said, 'Our Palace cannot be plucked up by the roots like a
leek for the sake of a little insect. No! Suleiman-bin-Daoud
must be dead, and what we heard and saw was the earth thundering
and darkening at the news.'

Then Balkis beckoned that bold Queen without looking at her, and
said to her and to the others, 'Come and see.'

They came down the marble steps, one hundred abreast, and beneath
his camphor-tree, still weak with laughing, they saw the Most
Wise King Suleiman-bin-Daoud rocking back and forth with a
Butterfly on either hand, and they heard him say, 'O wife of my
brother in the air, remember after this, to please your husband
in all things, lest he be provoked to stamp his foot yet again;
for he has said that he is used to this magic, and he is most
eminently a great magician--one who steals away the very Palace
of Suleirnan-bin-Daoud himself. Go in peace, little folk!' And he
kissed them on the wings, and they flew away.

Then all the Queens except Balkis--the Most Beautiful and
Splendid Balkis, who stood apart smiling--fell flat on their
faces, for they said, 'If these things are done when a Butterfly
is displeased with his wife, what shall be done to us who have
vexed our King with our loud-speaking and open quarrelling
through many days?'

Then they put their veils over their heads, and they put their
hands over their mouths, and they tiptoed back to the Palace most
mousy-quiet.

Then Balkis--The Most Beautiful and Excellent Balkis--went
forward through the red lilies into the shade of the camphor-tree
and laid her hand upon Suleiman-bin-Daoud's shoulder and said, 'O
my Lord and Treasure of my Soul, rejoice, for we have taught the
Queens of Egypt and Ethiopia and Abyssinia and Persia and India
and China with a great and a memorable teaching.'

And Suleiman-bin-Daoud, still looking after the Butterflies where
they played in the sunlight, said, 'O my Lady and Jewel of my
Felicity, when did this happen? For I have been jesting with a
Butterfly ever since I came into the garden.' And he told Balkis
what he had done.

Balkis--The tender and Most Lovely Balkis--said, 'O my Lord and
Regent of my Existence, I hid behind the camphor-tree and saw it
all. It was I who told the Butterfly's Wife to ask the Butterfly
to stamp, because I hoped that for the sake of the jest my Lord
would make some great magic and that the Queens would see it and
be frightened.

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