It did not take long for guards to burst into her room, weapons drawn. Who had attacked the queen?

Damascus, 17th Century

Shlomo Hamelech’s wife secluded herself in her royal chamber and pulled out a few leaves from the deadly plant perched on her windowsill. Her heart beat in fear and anticipation. What kind of spell had the African king put over her to convince her to perform such a dangerous and treacherous act? Doubt filled her mind, and her fingers holding the plant began to tremble violently.

Then her monkey screeched playfully and swung off the rafters above her hand and landed in front of her. She then remembered when Shlomo Hamelech had showed her the authenticity of the plants when he used them on the monkey. Her monkey had seemingly died, and the life-giving plant had brought it fully back to good health within seconds. Surely, she reasoned, the same should happen to her without any complications.

Before she could scare herself out of it, she hastily boiled the plant in a pot and drank from its broth. Then she hid the evidence underneath a loose floorboard. She suddenly felt extremely faint and tottered over to the wall. Her vision began to swim, and a tremendous weariness overtook her bones. With a frightened shriek, she fell to the floor, motionless.

It did not take long for guards to burst into her room, weapons drawn. Who had attacked the queen? They searched high and low, but only the curious monkey watching them from the windowsill was found. They tried everything to revive her, but there was no pulse. She was, for some unexplainable reason, dead.