﴿ وَجَدتُّهَا وَقَوْمَهَا يَسْجُدُونَ لِلشَّمْسِ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ وَزَيَّنَ لَهُمُ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ أَعْمَٰلَهُمْ فَصَدَّهُمْ عَنِ ٱلسَّبِيلِ فَهُمْ لَا يَهْتَدُونَ ﴾

“And I found her and her people adoring the sun instead of God; and Satan has made these doings of theirs seem goodly to them, and [thus] has barred them from the path [of God], so that they cannot find the right way:”

The Sabeans were a wealthy community of ancient times (1100 B.C. to 115B.C.). Their country was located in Ma‘arib (Yemen), where its grand ruins are still in existence. During Solomon’s period, this area was under the rule of a queen called Sheba (Bilqis). The people of this place used to worship the sun, Satan having taught them that the only thing worth worshipping was whatever was most prominent. As the sun was the most prominent of all visible things, only the sun, therefore, deserved to be considered a god and worshipped. Solomon received detailed information about the Sabeans through the hoopoe bird. This hoopoe perhaps belonged to Solomon’s army of birds and possibly received regular training.