Is queen sheba really a queen?

Answer 1

Yes. Even before she married A king,

Answer

There is now serious doubt we should call this woman "Queen Sheba". That is because the Hebrew text in the Books of Kings and Chronicles in The Bible which records the words 'queen' and 'sheba' may have been misread grammatically speaking. The word 'sheba', in original texts, was probably the verb to 'sheba' or sit at a throne or desk (of administrators or jurists). With the word 'malchat' paired with 'sheba' in the Hebrew text we see that she clearly ruled or administered a country. But which country did she rule? The previous verse notes that Solomon's sailors had been sailing around or to "Ophir". However, the English transliterations of this place are misleading. Really the English should be "Auphirah" and that is almost certainly "Africa".

Since only one woman ever controlled or administered all of Africa, even though much was still uninhabited and the Nile Valleys were the main population centres, the so-called "Queen Sheba" must be none other than Queen Hatshepsut or Hat-Sheba-Sut. Put simply, "Hat-sheba-sut" means the Sign of the Ruler of the South (SoUTh). In both Hebrew and ancient Egyptian, 'Hat' is rendered 'The Sign'. Since prophets and leaders gave signs or pointed the way, "H'at" is a reasonable name for a leader to chose. But Sheba-Hatshepsut seems to have adopted this common term (c.f., Amenem-hat, 12th Dynasty) and tweaked the meaning slightly to draw attention to the temple she built which evokes the words of Song of Solomon 2:14, "Oh my Dove, you are in the clefts of the rock in the secret places of the stairs". She seems to have designed her enigmatic temple at Deir el-Bahari to reflect those interesting words from Solomon's Song to be found in the Bible. The temple is "The Sign" that she saw Solomon's Temple as did many other ancient people including the Maori of New Zealand's ancestors who lived in south China, Taiwan etc in those days. The Maori say their marae are designed along principles set by Solomon's temple.

Certainly "Queen Sheba" was a queen. There were disputes about her status as the information we get from Egypt about Hatshepsut indicates. The Biblical account, and Jesus' statement about the "Queen of the South", which is her proper title since she was queen of several ethnic groups in Africa, the Sudan (Suten-bat), Nubia, Egypt, Ethiopia etc., clearly confirms the woman of I Kings 10 (and the parallel account in Chronicles) was a queen. In fact the Bible says God raises people to be monarchs, either to bless them or, like Pharaoh, to harden their hearts so that God's power against them can be demonstrated. That is what happened to AmenemhatIV, last king of the 12th Dynasty, when he resisted God's call to him to let the ancient Israelites leave Egypt and return to Canaan-Israel (or Punt-Retinu as the Egyptians called it). God blessed Hatshepsut-Sheba because she obeyed the call of God to go and learn about Him in Punt ("God's Land") when Solomon ruled there. He punished Amenemhat IV with ten plagues.