The Kebra Nagast, composed to legitimise the new dynasty ruling Ethiopia following its establishment in 1270, narrates how the real Ark of the Covenant was brought to Ethiopia by Menelik I with divine assistance, while a forgery was left in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Although the Kebra Nagast is the best-known account of this belief, the belief predates the document.

* Hubbard, David ( 1956 ) The Literary Sources of the Kebra Nagast Ph. D.

In the tradition of Ethiopian Orthodoxy, the Kebra Nagast says:

An Ethiopian account ( Kebra Nagast ) maintains that the Queen of Sheba had sexual relations with King Solomon ( of which the Biblical and Quranic accounts give no hint ) and gave birth by the Mai Bella stream in the province of Hamasien, Eritrea.

: Hubbard, David “ The Literary Sources of the Kebra Nagast ” Ph. D. dissertation St Andrews University, Scotland, 1956

The Kebra Nagast, the national epic of Ethiopia, is also taken as important amongst many Rastas.

* Kebra Nagast Party

According to the medieval Ethiopian cultural work called the Kebra Nagast, Sheba was located in Ethiopia.

In the medieval Ethiopian cultural work called the Kebra Nagast, Sheba was located in Ethiopia.

According to the Kebra Nagast, King Solomon had intended on sending one son of each of his nobles and one son of each temple priest with Menelik upon his return to his mother's kingdom.

* Hubbard, David ( 1956 ) The Literary Sources of the Kebra Nagast Ph. D. dissertation., St. Andrews University, Scotland

Based on Jewish biblical tradition and Ethiopian legend via Kebra Nagast, Rastas believe that Israel's King Solomon, together with Ethiopian Queen of Sheba, conceived a child which began the Solomonic line of kings in Ethiopia, rendering the African people as the true children of Israel, and thereby chosen.

The claim of descent from Menelik I is based on the assertion that the kings of Axum were also the descendants of Menelik I ; its definitive and best-known formulation is set forth in the Kebra Nagast.

Although the Kebra Nagast and some traditional Ethiopian histories have stated that Yodit ( or " Gudit ," Judith ; another name given her was " Esato ," Esther ), a 10th century usurping queen, was Jewish, some scholars consider that it is unlikely that this was the case.

However, she clearly supported Jews, since she founded the Zagwe Dynasty of rulers who governed from around 937 to 1270 CE., in which, according to the Kebra Nagast itself, Jewish, Christian and even pagan kings ruled in harmony.

Furthermore, the Zagwe dynasty legitimated itself ( again, even according to the Kebra Nagast itself ) through the claim that its lineage descended from Moses and his Ethiopian wife.

This claim is supported by the Kebra Nagast, which mentions Shewa as part of the realm of Menelik I ( chapter 39 ).

The Kebra Nagast ( var.

As the Ethiopianist Edward Ullendorff explained in the 1967 Schweich Lectures, " The Kebra Nagast is not merely a literary work, but it is the repository of Ethiopian national and religious feelings.

The Kebra Nagast is divided into 117 chapters, and, even after a single reading, one can see that it is clearly a composite work ; Ullendorff describes its narrative " a gigantic conflation of legendary cycles.

The Kebra Nagast concludes with a final prophecy that the power of Rome will be eclipsed by the power of Ethiopia, and describes how king Kaleb of Axum, will subdue the Jews living in Najran, and make his younger son Gabra Masqal his heir ( chapter 117 ).

According to the colophon attached to most of the existing copies, the Kebra Nagast originally was written in Coptic, then translated into Arabic in the Year of Mercy 409 ( dated to AD 1225 ) by a team of Ethiopian clerics during the office of Abuna Abba Giyorgis, and finally into Ge ' ez at the command of the governor of Enderta Ya ' ibika Igzi '.

Hubbard details the many sources that the compiler of the Kebra Nagast drew on in creating this work.

The rukh is also identified in the Ethiopian holy book Kebra Negast as the agent responsible for delivering the blessed piece of wood to King Solomon which enabled the great king to complete the Temple.

In the Ethiopian Book of Aksum, she is described as establishing a new capital city at Azeba, while the Kebra Negast refers to her building a capital at Debra Makeda, or " Mount Makeda ".

An ancient compilation of Ethiopian legends, Kebra Negast (' the Glory of Kings '), is dated to seven hundred years ago and relates a history of Makeda and her descendants.

Kebra Negast, Ge ' ez ክብረ ነገሥት, ), or The Glory of Kings, is an account written in Ge ' ez of the origins of the Solomonic line of the Emperors of Ethiopia.

Akademie de Wissenschaften, 1905 ), is available at Kebra Nagast.

Perhaps the best known is the Kebra Nagast, which was translated from Arabic at the request of Yaebika Egzi ' e, governor of Inderta.

E. A. Wallis Budge, in his preface to the second edition of his translation of the Kebra Nagast, claims that Brancaleon was a monk who had come to Ethiopia to convert Emperor Zara Yaqob and debated Abba Giyorgis several times on religious matters ; ( Wallis Budge may have misremembered James Bruce's statement about Abba Giyorgis's opponent in that religious debate, " We are not informed of the name of Abba George's antagonist, but he is thought to have been a Venetian painter, who lived many years after in Abyssinia, and, it is believed, died there " -- explicitly identifying him as Brancaleon in a footnote.

When Bruce was leaving Gondar, Ras Mikael Sehul, the powerful Inderase ( regent ) of Emperor Tekle Haymanot II, gave him several of the most valuable Ethiopic manuscripts and among them was a copy of the Kebra Nagast.

* The original Gəʿəz ( Ethiopic ) text as it appeared edited in Carl Bezold, Kebra Nagast, Die Kerrlichkeit Der Könige: Nach Den Handschriften in Berlin, London, Oxford Und Paris ( Munich: K. B.

The Tekezé served as an early link between Ethiopia and Egypt ; for example, the Kebra Nagast, which received its current form in the 13th century, states that king Menelik I returned to Ethiopia by following this river from Egypt ( ch.

The narrative given in the Kebra Negast-which has no parallel in the Hebrew Biblical story-is that King Solomon invited the Queen of Sheba to a banquet, serving spicy food to induce her thirst, and inviting her to stay in his palace overnight.

The Ethiopian history described in the Kebra Negast, or " Book of the Glory of Kings ," relates that Ethiopians are descendants of Israelite tribes who came to Ethiopia with Menelik I, alleged to be the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba ( or Makeda, in the legend ) ( see and ).

The Kebra Negast asserts that the Beta Israel are descended from a battalion of men of Judah who fled southwards down the Arabian coastal lands from Judea after the breakup of the united Kingdom of Israel into two kingdoms in the 10th century BCE ( while King Rehoboam reigned over Judah ).

Godinho published some traditions about King Solomon and his son Menelek, derived from the Kebra Nagast.

" On the basis of the Ethiopian national epic, the Kebra Negast, Rastas interpret this verse as meaning she conceived his child, and from this, conclude that African people are among the true children of Israel, or Jews.

Most of the Beta Israel consider the Kebra Negast legend to be a fabrication.

Additional information on the Kebra Nagast was included by the Jesuit priest Manuel de Almeida in his Historia de Etiopía.