Tzipporah at Pharaoh's Court?
Tzipporah in the Pharaoh's court even before Moses journeys to Midian? Certainly not in the Bible, but The Prince of Egypt shows just that, when she is presented to Rameses as a gift. [0:16; sixteen minutes into the film]
She again appears at court--at Moses' side as he confronts Pharaoh. [0:51; fifty-one minutes into the film]. That, too, is not found in the words of Torah, but if we turn to several other sources we will find a story or two which could suggest that Tzipporah might have appeared in Pharaoh's court. That is, if there was an ancient Egyptian version of "Take Your Daughter to Work Day," for her father, Jethro, was once an advisor to Pharaoh, or so a Talmudic story informs us.
In The Legends of the Jews, Louis Ginzberg related a similar scene: Distressed by a dream, Pharaoh was counseled by Balaam, Jethro and Job. Jethro advised that Pharaoh not take action against the Hebrews, and then began instructing him about some of the acts which God performed for the Hebrew patriarchs. He then reminded him how Pharaoh's grandfather advanced Joseph who saved Egypt from famine.
"Now, therefore, if it seem good in thine eyes, leave off from destroying the children of Israel," he offered, "and if it be not thy will that they dwell in Egypt, send them forth from here, that they may go to the land of Canaan, the land wherein their ancestors sojourned." Pharaoh, angry at Jethro's lecture, dismissed his counselor, who left Egypt for Midian.
(Shemot Rabbah 27. 3 and 6, also mention Jethro as one of Pharaoh's three counselors.)
In another version of the story found in The Legends of the Jews, Pharaoh asked his counselors how he might be healed of an attack of leprosy. Baalam suggested that he could regain his health only by the slaughter if the Israelite children, and bathing in their blood. Loathe to be part of such a heinous act, Jethro fled to Midian.
Soon after they meet at the well in Midian, Tzipporah tells Moses that her father has a tree which was once the rod that God created "in the twilight of the first Sabbath eve, and gave to Adam." [The Legends of the Jews"", Vol. II, p. 292] It was handed down from father to son until Joseph received if from his father in Egypt. After his death, it was stolen and brought to Pharaoh's palace. Tzipporah says: "At that time my father was one of the most prominent of the king's sacred scribes, and as such he had the opportunity of seeing the rod. He felt a great desire to possess it, and he stole it and took it to his house." The name of God was written on the rod, as were the Ten Plagues. Jethro stuck it into the ground near his house and it sprouted and blossomed.
"This is the rod with which he tries any that desire to marry his daughters." She informs Moses, "He insists that our suitors shall attempt to pull it out of the ground, but as soon as they touch it, it devours them." Imagine-- Even King Arthur did not have to worry about that risk!