Solomon and Sheba (1959)

Gina Lollobrigida: Sheba

Photos 

Quotes 

• Abishag : How interesting your encampment is. Are your people always so carefree and gay?

  Sheba : We enjoy life and pleasure. Don't you?

  Abishag : Yes, we do. But we are an austere people. We tend to be more serious.

  Sheba : And your king, is he also serious?

  Abishag : King Solomon has a great responsibility. He must maintain the unity of our twelve tribes.

  Sheba : It is very important, this unity?

  Abishag : Oh, yes. Without it, there would be no Israel.

• Pharaoh : And how will you destroy Solomon?

  Sheba : It is said that Solomon is wise. But no matter how wise he may be, he is still human, with a human weakness. I will sit at the feet of Solomon like the wise men who flock to Jerusalem. And perhaps I will learn from his own lips the way to destroy him.

  Pharaoh : Surely the way of a woman is beyond understanding.

  Sheba : The way of a woman is simple, my lord. It is always to follow the way of a man.

• Solomon : Nothing must come between us.

  Sheba : Not even our gods? I knew this moment would come, for the things we believe in are not the same.

  Solomon : I had hoped that in time you would come to accept Jehovah.

  Sheba : As King of Israel, would you abandon the god of your people for mine?

  Solomon : Still, I dared hope.

• Sheba : This Solomon the Almighty... Almighty what? Twenty men surrounding him, and he calls it a private audience.

  Takyan : He has entertained you royally...

  Sheba : And those state banquets! I at one end, he at the other. And in between us, a lot of sour-faced old men. Not once have I been with him alone. Not once.

  Takyan : But we have only been here five days.

  Sheba : This Solomon is more difficult to approach than the Pharaoh of Egypt. This great king has time for everything, except the time for being a man.

• Solomon : In the last few days, I have shown you much of Israel. But you have not told me anything of your own country.

  Sheba : At the moment, my own land seems as distant as the stars.

  Solomon : In my youth, I used to dream of visiting all the faraway kingdoms of the earth.

  Sheba : And now, instead, the rulers of those countries come to you.

• Solomon : Why did you come to Jerusalem?

  Sheba : Why do you ask me such a question now?

  Solomon : Because from the the first time you looked behind those lovely eyes is the brain of a very clever woman who would never have travelled 800 leagues without a purpose.

  Sheba : You have found me out. I will confess to you. The Pharaoh is paying me a fabulous price to spy on you. To deliver to him all of your secrets.

  Solomon : I have considered that, but Israel has no real secrets from Egypt. Pharaoh is aware of our weaknesses and our strength.

  Sheba : How could I hope to deceive you? I have been trying to entrap you. With these. To bind you to me in soft chains so that I may do with you as I will.

  Solomon : Now perhaps we are approaching the truth. Every woman exacts her price from a man.

• Baltor : I have come to ask your permission to arrange your immediate departure.

  Sheba : Yes. Let us go, quickly. There is no reason for us to remain now that I have accomplished my purpose.

  Baltor : Your Majesty should not reproach herself. It was nothing more than a sudden storm. It is not the first time lightning has dealt death, nor will it be the last.

  Sheba : Was it nothing more than a coincidence?

  Baltor : Surely, Your Majesty cannot believe the Israelites, that it was a sign of the anger and revenge of their god?

  Sheba : I no longer know what I do believe.

  Takyan : Majesty, you're overwrought.

  Baltor : Yes, the strain of the last few days has affected us all. But this is your hour of triumph. The Pharaoh will rejoice in your victory. Sheba can be proud of her queen.

  Sheba : I am very proud of myself. I have earned my reward from Egypt. We will have our port on the Red Sea. We will have more gold, more power, more everything. Because I have betrayed a great man who trusted me, who loved me beyond all else.

• Sheba : What favor do you seek of me?

• Baltor : Solomon"s threat is not only his army, but his God.

  Sheba : His God? We have a hundred gods.

  Baltor : But there's this one God who teaches that all men are equal and none are slaves.

  Sheba : What a foolish idea. And yet, if that idea were to take hold of the people, the Queen of Sheba would soon come crashing down from her throne.

• Baltor : Our security is threatened. Almost fanatically they support their great King Solomon.

  Sheba : A dreamer. A man of peace.

  Baltor : But a man of ideas, and there's nothing more dangerous than a man with an idea.

• Sheba : Send him to me, Rha-Gon, god of love. Make me the most desirable of women. Make my lips sweet as honey, my skin soft and fragrant like the petals of a flower. Give him to me. I want him at my feet.

• Sheba : You are charming. Innocent.

  Abishag : And you fulfil all my expectations.

• Sheba : How dare he treat me this way! What does he think I am? Just another cat in his royal cage?

• Sheba : I want you to love me wholly, completely, and that love to be the most precious thing in your life.

  Solomon : I hope it is true, but if it is not, then let me remain blind to the truth.

• Sheba : [soaking in a bath]  Mmm. Attar of roses. I love it.

  Takyan : The king"s favorite scent.

  Sheba : How do you know?

  Takyan : The women of his harem told me.

• Sheba : If I do not prevent it, my people would stay and stare at you. The fabled Solomon.

  Solomon : The way I stare at you?

• Solomon : After what has come to pass between us, new words keep singing in my heart.

  Sheba : Tell them to me.

  Solomon : Behold, thou art fair, my love, Thine eyes are as doves, Thy lips are as pomegranates, How much better is thy love than wine.