This riddle was designed to stump the wisest man in the ancient world. It almost worked.
“Seven depart and nine enter; two pour and one drinks.”
Every number in this riddle means something. The answer isn’t about objects or places. It’s about something deeply human.
Click to Reveal the Answer
Pregnancy and Nursing 🤰
Seven refers to the days of the menstrual cycle ending. Nine refers to the nine months of pregnancy. Two refers to the mother’s breasts. And the one who drinks is the baby.
The Story Behind This Riddle
This riddle comes from one of history’s most famous encounters: the Queen of Sheba’s visit to King Solomon. The Bible mentions their meeting in 1 Kings 10:1-3, where the queen travels to Jerusalem to test Solomon’s legendary wisdom with “hard questions.”
The Bible never says what those questions were, but centuries of Jewish rabbinic literature filled in the blanks. In the Midrash Mishle, written sometime between the 8th and 11th century, this riddle appears as one of the queen’s challenges. Solomon answered instantly, decoding each number with ease.
What makes this riddle fascinating is how it turns the most ordinary cycle of life into a mathematical puzzle. Every number maps perfectly onto the female body and the process of bringing new life into the world. The Queen of Sheba wasn’t just testing Solomon’s book knowledge. She was testing whether he truly understood human nature. He passed.
