Captivated by tales of King Solomon’s wisdom and the magnificence of his court, the Queen of Sheba journeyed to Jerusalem to seek an audience with him. The Queen was wealthy in her own right, and travelled with an enormous camel train laden with gifts of gold, spices and precious stones. In this drawing, Sheba stands before Solomon’s throne and gestures towards the gifts. Although the drawing is squared, presumably to allow for enlargement of the design, no painted version of the subject by Palma is known. This drawing has previously been dated to the end of the sixteenth century, but the wiry twisted pen lines suggest that this may actually be an earlier work, possibly dating from Palma’s years in Rome.