سبإ

Core meaning

Proper noun of a people and its land. The text ties it to two things: the certain information brought from it, and the sign received in its dwelling, from which it turned away. The translation writes "Saba'".

Uses

1. سَبَإ → "Saba'" : the people and its country, given plenty then deprived.

   • «لَقَدْ كَانَ لِسَبَإٍۢ فِى مَسْكَنِهِمْ ءَايَةٌۭ» — "There was certainly for Saba' a sign in their dwelling place" (34:15)

Evidence from the text

The first mention rhymes the name with what it brings: «مِن سَبَإٍۭ بِنَبَإٍۢ يَقِينٍ», from Saba', "a sure piece of information" (27:22); it opens the account of the queen, who ends up true to God.

The second makes the people a sign: two gardens and safe roads, then the turning away, and "the destructive flood of the dam" (34:16). The same name thus carries an opening and a loss.

See also

نبء (information) · سيل (the flood)