Ibn Dihyah cites this report in his book al-Tanwīr fī Mawlid al-Bashīr al-Nadhīr.

Imām Aḥmad recorded—with his chain from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Ibn Lahīʿah, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hubayrah, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Waʿlah—that he heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās say: A man asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about Sabaʾ, saying, “Is it a man, a woman, or a land?” He replied, “Rather, he was a man who fathered ten sons. Six of them settled in Yemen and four in Syria. The Yemeni clans are Madhḥij, Kindah, the Azd, the Ashʿarīs, Anmār, and Ḥimyar; the Syrian clans are Lakhm, Judhām, ʿĀmilah, and Ghassān.”

We noted in the Tafsīr that the questioner was Farwah ibn Musayk al-Ghuṭayfī, and there we detailed all the chains and wording of this ḥadīth. All praise is due to Allah.

The point is that all these tribes trace back to Sabaʾ. Among them, in the land of Yemen, were the Tubbaʿ kings—singular Tubbaʿ. Their rulers wore crowns when sitting in judgment, just as the Kisrā emperors of Persia did. The Arabs called anyone who ruled Yemen together with al-Shiḥr and Ḥaḍramawt a Tubbaʿ, just as they called the ruler of Syria and the Jazīrah “Caesar,” the ruler of Persia “Kisrā,” the ruler of Egypt—who was a disbeliever—“Pharaoh,” the ruler of Abyssinia “Najāshī,” and the ruler of India “Ptolemy.” One of the Ḥimyarite monarchs of Yemen was Bilqīs, whose story with Solomon—upon him be peace—we have already related. They enjoyed great prosperity, plentiful provision, abundant fruits and crops, and they were upright and rightly guided. But when they exchanged Allah’s favor for disbelief, they consigned their people to ruin.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, quoting Wahb ibn Munabbih, said that Allah sent them thirteen prophets, whereas al-Suddī claimed He sent twelve thousand. Allah knows best.

In short, when they turned from guidance to error and prostrated to the sun instead of Allah—this took place during the time of Bilqīs and even before her—they persisted in that until Allah sent upon them the flood of the dam, as He, exalted is He, says:

“But they turned away, so We unleashed upon them the flood of the dam, and We replaced their two gardens with two others bearing bitter fruit, tamarisk, and a few lote trees. Such was Our recompense for their ingratitude—do We ever repay any but the ungrateful?” (Sabaʾ 34:16-17).