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Above: The Queen of Sheba before King Solomon from Two Riddles of the Queen of Sheba. Upper Rhineland, Strasbourg, 1490–1500. Bast fiber warp; wool, silk, and metallic wefts; wool pile yarns. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Cloisters Collection, 1971 (1971.43). Former owners: J. Pierpont Morgan, New York; W. Hinckle Smith, Philadelphia; French and Co., New York.
King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba are shown in the garden setting of the Song of Songs. The lilium convallium of the Vulgate is convincingly rendered in the upper left-hand corner of this German tapestry as Convallaria majalis and not Lilium candidum. The botanical identity of the flower intended in the Hebrew Bible is unknown.