King Soloman is wise, the wisest man in the world. One day, the Queen of Sheba--the wisest woman in the world--arrives at the gates of Jerusalem. She has come form a faraway land to see Solomon put this wisdom to work. "Name anything," says the king. What the queen asks of Solomon is startling. To fulfill her request, he must change the birds of the sky--and change them forever. Soon the fate of every bird in the world rests with a small, colorful bird called the hoopoe.

This is a story based on the biblical tale of the meeting of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, as well as Jewish European folklore and African legend. The Queen of Sheba came to King Solomon to learn something important. She witnessed him answer many questions, but wanted to see what he could do with his knowledge. So she challenged him to make a palace of bird beaks. King Solomon called all the birds, so he could chop their beaks off to build the palace. The hoopoe bird was late, and King Solomon got very angry. The bird had stopped to get him a gift--three gifts in fact: three things he did not know. The hoopoe asked the king his three questions. And while Solomon was able to answer, the questions made him realize the destructiveness and folly of what he was about to do. ( )

SPOILER: King Solomon promises to do something for Sheba, but when he realizes the terrible price that birds will pay if he completes his task, he realizes that it is better to fail and break his promise. ( )

When the Queen of Sheba, the wisest woman in the world, comes to Jerusalem to present an unusual request to King Solomon, the wisest man in the world, the fate of every bird in the world is at stake. ( )