The Solomonic dynasty is the traditional Imperial House of Ethiopia, claiming descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who is said to have given birth to the traditional first king Menelik I after her Biblically described visit to Solomon in Jerusalem.
The Imperial Order of Solomon was an order of knighthood of the Ethiopian Empire founded in 1874. A special class Collar was created by Empress Zauditu in 1922. It was a split off from the Order of the Seal of Solomon and created as an independent order with a single grade of "Collar" by Emperor Haile Selassie I in 1930. Members are identified as a "Knight" of the Order of Solomon, with the use the post-nominal initials KS.
Ethiopia's current flag
Menelik I (Ge'ez: ምኒልክ) was the claimed first Emperor of Ethiopia. According to Kebra Nagast, a 14th-century national epic, in the 10th century BC he is said to have inaugurated the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia, so named because Menelik I was the son of the biblical King Solomon of ancient Israel and of Makeda, the Queen of Sheba. According to the medieval age of Ethiopian book of the Kebra Nagast, translated into Geʽez in 1321 CE, his name was Bäynä Ləḥkəm (from Arabic: ابن الحكيم, Ibn Al-Hakim, "Son of the Wise."). He was conceived when his father Solomon tricked his visiting mother, the Queen of Sheba, into sleeping with him. His mother raised him as a Jew in Ethiopia and he only traveled to Jerusalem to meet his father for the first time when he was in his twenties. While his father begged Menelik to stay and rule over Israel, Menelik told him that he wanted to return to Ethiopia. Thus, Solomon sent many Israelites with him, to aid him in ruling according to biblical standards; they were aggrieved at being exiled forever. King Solomon gave his Ark of the Covenant to his son as a gift for being his son and being king of Ethiopia. Upon the death of his mother, Menelik was crowned King of Ethiopia.
Emperor Yekuno Amlak
Ark of the Covenant / Tabot
Article - Ethiopians killed after defending ‘Ark of the Covenant’
At least 800 people were reportedly killed in Ethiopia as worshippers and soldiers risked their lives to protect what Christians there say is the sacred Ark of the Covenant from local militia. Ethiopian Christians claim the Ark — the wooden chest built to hold the Ten Commandments of Moses — is being kept safe in a chapel in the holy northern city of Axum in the Tigray region. The battle between Ethiopian soldiers and rebel fighters happened in the fall, The Sunday Times reported, but it is only being reported now. “When people heard the shooting they ran to the church to give support to the priests and others who were there protecting the ark,” Getu Mak, a local university lecturer, told The Times.
A model of the Ark of the Covenant (known as the Tabot) is taken out of every Ethiopian church once a year for 24 hours and paraded during a procession in towns across the country. It is part of a festival known as Timket -- the holiest holiday on the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian calendar. Known as the 'Mother Church of Ethiopia,' St. Mary of Tzion is believed to house the real Ark of the Covenant, the structure that held the biblical Ten Commandments. It is guarded by a select group of monks, whose sole commitment is to protect the sacred vessel. The Fasilides Bath in Ethiopia's Gondar is a UNESCO heritage site that was built in 1632 for King Fasil. Every year during Timket thousands of pilgrims flock to the city of Gondar to immerse themselves in holy water.
The Imperial Order of Solomon was an order of knighthood of the Ethiopian Empire founded in 1874. A special class Collar was created by Empress Zauditu in 1922. It was a split off from the Order of the Seal of Solomon and created as an independent order with a single grade of "Collar" by Emperor Haile Selassie I in 1930. Members are identified as a "Knight" of the Order of Solomon, with the use the post-nominal initials KS.
Ethiopia's current flag
Menelik I (Ge'ez: ምኒልክ) was the claimed first Emperor of Ethiopia. According to Kebra Nagast, a 14th-century national epic, in the 10th century BC he is said to have inaugurated the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia, so named because Menelik I was the son of the biblical King Solomon of ancient Israel and of Makeda, the Queen of Sheba. According to the medieval age of Ethiopian book of the Kebra Nagast, translated into Geʽez in 1321 CE, his name was Bäynä Ləḥkəm (from Arabic: ابن الحكيم, Ibn Al-Hakim, "Son of the Wise."). He was conceived when his father Solomon tricked his visiting mother, the Queen of Sheba, into sleeping with him. His mother raised him as a Jew in Ethiopia and he only traveled to Jerusalem to meet his father for the first time when he was in his twenties. While his father begged Menelik to stay and rule over Israel, Menelik told him that he wanted to return to Ethiopia. Thus, Solomon sent many Israelites with him, to aid him in ruling according to biblical standards; they were aggrieved at being exiled forever. King Solomon gave his Ark of the Covenant to his son as a gift for being his son and being king of Ethiopia. Upon the death of his mother, Menelik was crowned King of Ethiopia.
Emperor Yekuno Amlak
There was also the story, related in both the "Life of Iyasus Mo'a" and the Be'ela nagastat, that a rooster was heard to prophesize outside of the house of the Zagwe king for three months that whoever ate his head would be king. The king then had the bird killed and cooked, but the cook discarded the rooster's head -- which Yekuno Amlak ate, and thus became ruler of Ethiopia. Scholars have pointed out the similarity between this legend and one about the first king of Kaffa, who likewise learned from mysterious voice that eating the head of a certain rooster would make him king, as well as the Ethiopian Mashafa dorho or "Book of the Cock", which relates a story about a cooked rooster presented to Christ at the Last Supper which is brought back to life."
Ark of the Covenant / Tabot
Article - Ethiopians killed after defending ‘Ark of the Covenant’
At least 800 people were reportedly killed in Ethiopia as worshippers and soldiers risked their lives to protect what Christians there say is the sacred Ark of the Covenant from local militia. Ethiopian Christians claim the Ark — the wooden chest built to hold the Ten Commandments of Moses — is being kept safe in a chapel in the holy northern city of Axum in the Tigray region. The battle between Ethiopian soldiers and rebel fighters happened in the fall, The Sunday Times reported, but it is only being reported now. “When people heard the shooting they ran to the church to give support to the priests and others who were there protecting the ark,” Getu Mak, a local university lecturer, told The Times.
A model of the Ark of the Covenant (known as the Tabot) is taken out of every Ethiopian church once a year for 24 hours and paraded during a procession in towns across the country. It is part of a festival known as Timket -- the holiest holiday on the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian calendar. Known as the 'Mother Church of Ethiopia,' St. Mary of Tzion is believed to house the real Ark of the Covenant, the structure that held the biblical Ten Commandments. It is guarded by a select group of monks, whose sole commitment is to protect the sacred vessel. The Fasilides Bath in Ethiopia's Gondar is a UNESCO heritage site that was built in 1632 for King Fasil. Every year during Timket thousands of pilgrims flock to the city of Gondar to immerse themselves in holy water.
