He asked: "Then how can the Hoopoe—who is the Gate—say to Lord Solomon—who is the Name: {But he [the hoopoe] stayed not long and said, "I have encompassed [in knowledge] that which you have not encompassed, and I have come to you from Sheba with certain news"}1?" I said to him: "Return to your intellect and the purity of your mind, and reflect upon the interpretation (ta'wil) of the Quran, for that is more beneficial to you than its recitation. This statement of the hoopoe is a particle of inquiry; its meaning is: 'Indeed You encompass me and my science, and You know the science of the Kingdom in its entirety before my science, for You are the Producer, and I do not know except what You have taught me.'"
And his saying: {"And I have come to you from Sheba with certain news"}2—meaning the news is an absolute truth—"I found a woman ruling them"—who is Bilqis—"and she has a great throne"—meaning a great science—"I found her and her people prostrating to the sun instead of God." A group said: they used to worship the Second, and Bilqis is Umm Salama.
Our Sheikh Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn ibn Hamdan al-Khasibi—may God ennoble his station—said: "They used to worship the Name, who is the Sun in this place." He also related that Bilqis is Safiyya bint Huyayy ibn Akhtab al-Khaybariyya. Zayd asked: "And what do you say regarding the Ant that said: {Until, when they came upon the valley of the ants, an ant said, "O ants, enter your dwellings lest Solomon and his soldiers crush you while they do not perceive"}3?" I replied: "The Ant is Umm Salama, who is the 'wing' (safqa) of the Gate, and the Ants are the believers."