Menelik I, called Bayna Lehkem or Ebna Hakim, 'son of the wise man', is in the Kebra Nagast the son of Solomon and Makeda and the first king of Christian Ethiopia. Journeying to Jerusalem to be recognised by his father, he is anointed and sent home; but the eldest sons of Israel's elders, unwilling to leave the divine presence, spirit the tabot of Zion out of the Temple and bear it with them to Aksum, where in highland belief it abides to this day. As the reputed founder of the Solomonic line, Menelik anchors the sacred genealogy that legitimated Ethiopian kingship for six centuries.