Note 24 — Notes on the Woodcuts.

The Jews, not knowing what to do with this miraculous tree, laid it across a brook,24 and, when the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon, she recognized the virtue of the wood; and, refusing to defile it with her feet, she dismounted, and adored it, and waded through the brook.25 Then, when she met Solomon, she reproved him, and told him that on that tree would the Saviour of the world suffer death.26 And Solomon commanded the holy wood to be taken up,27 and caused it to be carried into the Temple, there to be placed over the door, so that all men might bless, and adore it, and he coated it over with gold and silver.28 There it remained until Abias stripped it of its costly coverings,29 and the Jews buried it deep in the earth.30