“Queen Sheba loads forty mules with gold bricks
as gifts for Solomon. When her envoy and his party
reach the wide plain leading to Solomon’s palace,
they see that the top layer of the entire plain
is pure gold. They travel on gold
for forty days!

What foolishness to take gold
to Solomon, when the dirt of his land
is gold.”

—Rumi, Sheba’s Gifts To Solomon, from The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, 1995.