In this excerpt from the Kebra Negast, the author described Menilek’s journey out of Israel with the Ark of the Covenant (referred to as “ZION” in the text). Like Moses, the success of Menilek’s journey was made possible by divine intervention at the Red Sea. When Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt, God parted the Red Sea to ensure their escape from the pharaoh’s army. When Menilek fled Israel with the Ark, God carried his party over the water, thereby preventing their capture by Solomon’s army. As you read about Menilek’s crossing of the Red Sea, think about its symbolic significance. What importance should we attach to the parallels the Kebra Negast drew between Moses and Menilek?

And [the people of Ethiopia] took flutes, and blew horns, and [beat] drums, and [played on] pipes, and the Brook of Egypt was moved and astonished at the noise of their songs and their rejoicings; and with them were mingled outcries and shouts of gladness. And their idols, which they had made with their hands and which were in the forms of men, and dogs, and cats, fell down, and the high towers (pylons or obelisks), and also the figures of birds, [made] of gold and silver, fell down also and were broken in pieces. For ZION shone like the sun, and at the majesty thereof they were dismayed. And they arrayed ZION in her apparel, and they bore the gifts to her before her, and they set her upon a wagon, and they spread out purple beneath her, and they draped her with draperies of purple, and they sang songs before her and behind her.

Then the wagons rose up [resumed their journey] as before, and they set out early in the morning, and the people sang songs to ZION, and they were all raised up the space of a cubit, and as the people of the country of Egypt bade them farewell, they passed before them like shadows, and the people of the country of Egypt worshipped them, for they saw ZION moving in the heavens like the sun, and they all ran with the wagon of ZION, some in front of her and some behind her. And they came to the sea Al-Ah_.mar, which is the Sea of Eritrea [the Red Sea], which was divided by the hand of Moses, and the children of Israel marched in the depths thereof, going up and down. Now at that time the Tabernacle of the Law of God had not been given unto Moses, and therefore the water only gathered itself together, a wall on the right hand and a wall on the left, and allowed Israel to pass with their beasts and their children and their wives. And after they had crossed the sea God spake to Moses and gave him the Tabernacle of the Covenant with the Book of the Law. And when the holy ZION crossed over with those who were in attendance on her, and who sang songs to the accompaniment of harps and flutes, the sea received them and its waves leaped up as do the high mountains when they are split asunder, and it roared even as a lion roareth when he is enraged, and it thundered as doth the winter thunder of Damascus and Ethiopia when the lightning smiteth the clouds, and the sound thereof mingled with the sounds of the musical instruments. And the sea worshipped ZION. And whilst its billows were tossing about like the mountains their wagons were raised above the waves for a space of three cubits, and among the sound of the songs the [noise of the] breaking of the waves of the sea was wonderful. The breaking of the waves of the sea was exceedingly majestic and stupefying, and it was mighty and strong. And the creatures that were in the sea, those that could be recognized, and those that were invisible, came forth and worshipped ZION; and the birds that were on it flapped their pinions and overshadowed it. And there was joy to the Sea of Eritrea, and to the people of Ethiopia, who went forth to the sea and rejoiced exceedingly, and with a greater joy than did Israel when they came out of Egypt. And they arrived opposite Mount Sinai, and dwelt in K_.âdês, and they remained there whilst the angels sang praises; and the creatures of the spirit mingled their praises with [those] of the children of earth, with songs, and psalms, and tambourines joyfully.

And then they loaded their wagons, and they rose up, and departed, and journeyed on to the land of Medyâm, and they came to the country of Bêlôntôs, which is a country of Ethiopia. And they rejoiced there, and they encamped there, because they had reached the border of their country with glory and joy, without tribulation on the road, in a wagon of the spirit, by the might of heaven and of Michael the Archangel. And all the provinces of Ethiopia rejoiced, for ZION sent forth a light like that of the sun into the darkness wheresoever she came.

Source: Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, trans., The Book of the Glory of Kings (London: Oxford University Press, 1932), pp. 82–84.

Questions to Consider