His province of Edom adjoined her own possessions; his ports on the Gulf of Aqaba were open to her merchants, and the frankincense which grew in her dominions was needed for the temple at Jerusalem.
The people of Sheba belonged to the south Arabian stock.

In both blood and language they differed considerably from the Semites of the north.
Physically they bore some resemblance to the Egyptians, and it has been suggested that the Egyptians were originally emigrants from their shores.

They lived in lofty castles, and terraced the slopes of the mountains for the purpose of cultivation, as they still do to-day.
Civilisation among them was old; it was derived, at least in part, from Babylonia, and the dynasty which reigned over Babylon in the age of Abraham was of south Arabian descent.

Some of them crossed the Red Sea and founded colonies in Africa, in the modern Abyssinia, where they built cities and introduced the culture of their former homes.

Like the Egyptians and the Babylonians, they were a literary people; their inscriptions are still scattered thickly among the ruins of their towns, written in the letters of the alphabet which is usually termed Phoenician.