An-Naml ('The Ant'), 93 Meccan verses, is named for the ant that warns its colony of Solomon's approaching army (27:18). It recounts Solomon's power over jinn, wind and speech with animals, the hoopoe's report of the sun-worshipping Queen of Sheba, and her coming to faith, alongside the stories of Moses, Salih and Lot.
The ant's warning to its colony (27:18), instructing the other ants to enter their dwellings so Solomon's army does not crush them unknowingly, is read by classical commentators as demonstrating Solomon's Quranic gift of understanding the speech of creatures generally, established a few verses earlier (27:16), rather than as an isolated miracle attached only to this encounter; Solomon's smile at overhearing the ant, and his prayer of gratitude that follows, is cited as a model of humility in a ruler granted extraordinary power. The hoopoe's report of the Queen of Sheba, describing a people who prostrate to the sun rather than to God (27:22-26), sets up an extended exchange of letters and gifts between Solomon and the queen that culminates in her recognising true sovereignty and, in the surah's own words, submitting 'with Solomon to God, Lord of the worlds' (27:44), a conversion narrative read across the tradition as showing worldly power submitting to revealed truth without military conquest. The queen's throne, transported to Solomon's court before her arrival through a feat the surah attributes to one 'who had knowledge of the Scripture' (27:40) rather than to Solomon's own jinn, has generated centuries of exegetical speculation about this figure's identity, left unnamed in the text itself.