By this device Solomon was enabled to
distinguish between the natural and the artificial flowers.
Again the Queen of Sheba endeavoured to outwit the sagacious monarch.
She brought before him a number of boys and girls, apparelled all alike,
and desired him to distinguish those of one sex from those of the other,
as they stood before him. Solomon caused a large basin full of water to
be fetched in, and ordered them all to wash their hands. By this
expedient he discovered the males from the females; since the boys
merely washed their hands, while the girls washed also their arms.[76]
[76] Among the Muhammedan legends concerning Solomon and the
Queen of Sheba, it is related that, after he had
satisfactorily answered all her questions and solved her
riddles, "before he would enter into more intimate
relations with her, he desired to clear up a certain
point respecting her, and to see whether she actually
had cloven feet, as several of his demons would have him
to believe; or whether they had only invented the defect
from fear lest he should marry her, and beget children,
who, as descendants of the genii [the mother of Bilkis
is said to have been of that race of beings], would be
even more mighty than himself.
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