Queen, not exactly embracing pope, quietly drawing back (9)
I believe the answer is:
cleopatra
'queen' is the definition.
(Cleopatra was an Egyptian queen)
'not exactly embracing pope quietly drawing back' is the wordplay.
'not exactly' becomes 'ca' (circa).
'embracing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'pope' becomes 'Leo' (papal name of several popes).
'quietly' becomes 'p' (p for piano and quiet).
'drawing back' becomes 'tra' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'leo'+'p'='leop'
'ca' enclosing 'leop' is 'cleopa'.
'cleopa'+'tra'='CLEOPATRA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cleopatra that I've seen before include "beauty of old" , "Her Needle is on the Embankment in London" , "1st century queen of Egypt" , "Needlewoman" , "Mistress of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony" .)