1 Kings — Chapter 10

And the queen of Saba, having heard of the fame of Solomon in the name of the Lord, came to try him with hard questions: Lapide discusses at length whether the Queen came from Arabia or Ethiopia. He follows the majority of Fathers (Josephus, Origen, Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory, Basil, etc.) in holding she came from Ethiopia. She is the \"queen of the South\" who came from the ends of the earth.

She had no longer any spirit in her — overwhelmed by Solomon's wisdom: Lapide: Allegorically (S. Gregory on Psalm vi): \"The Church of the elect, gathered from the Gentiles, having come to know the grace of Christ and having found the masters of evangelical doctrine, laying aside the proud spirit and all the arrogance of elation, learned to distrust herself and to hope greatly in the mercy of her King.\"

Blessed are thy men and blessed are thy servants who stand before thee always: Lapide: \"This is more truly verified in Christ, the antitype of Solomon, as He Himself teaches (Luke xi:31). Anagogically, this will be most perfectly true in heaven, where we shall see the God of gods in Sion and shall have no more spirit from sheer wonder at the glory which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man.\"

King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom: Lapide: The entire earth desired to see the face of Solomon, to hear the wisdom which God had placed in his heart. He is the supreme type of Christ: as all peoples came to Solomon to hear wisdom, so all nations come to Christ, the Wisdom of God incarnate.