The scholars differed over the name of Dhul Qarnayn with four opinions.
The first: Abd Allah. This was said by Ali, may Allah be pleased with him. Ibn Abbas said: His name was Abd Allah ibn al-Dahhak.
The second: Alexander. This was said by Wahb. It was also said that he was Alexander, son of Caesar. This was stated by Abu al-Husayn ibn al-Munadi, and that this Caesar was the first and earliest of the Caesars. He was given the title Dhul Qarnayn only a long time after that.
The third: Ayyash. This was said by Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Husayn.
The fourth: al-Saab ibn Jathir ibn al-Qalmas. Abu Bakr ibn Abi Khaythama mentioned it.
Ibn Ishaq said: Someone who relates the reports of the non-Arabs from what they have inherited of his knowledge informed me that Dhul Qarnayn was a man from the people of Egypt. His name was Marzuban ibn Murdhaba the Greek, of the progeny of Yunan, son of Japheth, son of Nuh. Ibn Hisham said: His name was Alexander, and he is the one who built Alexandria, so it was attributed to him. Ibn Ishaq said: Thawr ibn Yazid related to me from Khalid ibn Maadan al-Kila‘i, who had lived to see earlier times, that the Messenger of Allah – may Allah bless him and grant him peace – was asked about Dhul Qarnayn. He said: A king who traversed the earth beneath him by means of the causes. It was also said: Mus‘ab ibn Abd Allah ibn Qanan ibn Mansur ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Azd ibn Ghaws ibn Nabit ibn Malik ibn Zayd ibn Kahlan ibn Saba ibn Qahtan.
It has come in a hadith that he was from Himyar and his mother was Roman, and that he used to be called the son of the philosopher due to his intellect. A poem by a Himyari boasting that he was among his forefathers was recited, saying:
My forefather, Dhul Qarnayn, was a Muslim king
Before whom kings submitted and gathered
He reached the East and the West, seeking
The causes of a matter from a wise guide
He saw the sun’s setting at its sunset
In a miry spring thick and dark
After him, Bilqis was my aunt
She ruled them until the hoopoe came to her
Al-Daraqutni and Ibn Makuula mentioned that his name was Hermes. It is said: Hardis, son of Faytu,n son of Rumi, son of Lant,i son of Kaslujin, son of Yunan, son of Japheth, son of Nuh. Allah knows best. Ishaq ibn Bishr reported from Saeed ibn Bashir from Qatada, who said: Iskandar is Dhul Qarnayn, and his father was the first of the Caesars, and he was of the progeny of Sam, son of Nuh, peace be upon him. As for the second Dhul Qarnayn, he is Iskandar, son of Philip, son of Madhrim, son of Hermes, son of Hardis, son of Maytu, son of Rumi, son of Lanti, son of Yunan, son of Japheth, son of Nunah, son of Sarhun, son of Rumah, son of Tharnat, son of Tufil, son of Rumi, son of al-Asfar, son of al-Yafiz, son of al-Is, son of Ishaq, son of Ibrahim al-Khalil. Thus did al-Hafiz Ibn Asakir ascribe him in his History: the Macedonian Greek Egyptian, builder of Alexandria, by whose era the Romans reckon. He came long after the first by a great span. He lived before al-Masih by about three hundred years. Aristotle, the philosopher, was his minister. He killed Dara ibn Dara, humbled the kings of Persia, and trod their land. We point this out because many people think they are the same, and that the one mentioned in the Quran is the one whose minister was Aristotle. This leads to grave and extensive error, for the first was a believing righteous servant and a just king, and his minister was al-Khidr, who was a prophet as we clarified earlier. As for the second, he was a polytheist, and his minister was a philosopher. More than two thousand years lay between their times. How far apart they are and how unlike. They are not equal nor easily confused except by one ignorant of realities.
Reasons for His Title Dhul Qarnayn
They differed over the reason for his being called Dhul Qarnayn with ten opinions.
- He called his people to Allah Most High, so they struck him on one side of his head, and he died. He remained for a time, then Allah resurrected him, and he called them to Allah again, so they struck him on the other sid,e and he died. These are his two “horns”. This was narrated from Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, in one report.
From Amr ibn Shuayb from his father from his grandfather: He invited a tyrant king to Allah, so the king struck him on one side of his head and smashed it. He then invited him again, so the king struck the other side and broke it. Hence, he was called Dhul Qarnayn.
- He was called Dhul Qarnayn because he journeyed to the setting place of the sun and to its rising place. This was narrated by Abu Salih from Ibn Abbas.
From Habib ibn Jadhm: A man said to Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, How did Dhul Qarnayn reach the East and the West? Ali said: The clouds were subjugated to him, the means were extended for him, and light was spread for him. In another narration from Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, he said: He was a righteous servant, sincere to Allah and obedient to Him. The clouds were subjugated to him and carried him, and the light was spread.
- Because the two sides of his head were of copper.
- Because he saw in a dream as though he extended from heaven to the earth and grasped the two “horns” of the sun. He recounted this to his people and was named Dhul Qarnayn.
- Because he ruled Persia and Rome.
- Because there was something like two horns on his head. These four opinions were narrated by Wahb ibn Munabbih.
- Because he had two braids of hair. This was said by al-Hasan.
Abu Bakr ibn al-Anbari said: The Arabs call two hair-braids ghudayratayn, dafayratayn, and qarnayn. Those who said he was so named because he ruled Persia and Rome argued that they are elevated on two sides of the earth, so they are like two horns for it.
- Because he was noble at both ends of his lineage, from a household of dignity.
- Because two generations of people passed away during his lifetime while he was still alive.
- Because he traversed darkness and light. Abu Ishaq al-Tha‘labi mentioned these opinions.
Mujahid said: Four ruled the earth. Two believers and two disbelievers. The believers were Sulayman ibn Dawud and Dhul Qarnayn. The disbelievers were Nimrod and Bukht Nasr.
Abu al-Husayn Ahmad ibn Ja‘far said: It is claimed that Dhul Qarnayn was among the greatest kings of the earth, yet Allah granted him that tawhid, obedience, doing good, extending to him the means, aiding him against his enemies, opening cities and fortresses, overcoming men, living a long life in which he reached the East and the West, building the barrier between the people and Yajuj and Majuj. That was a mercy for the believers and a fortified protection against a tribulation beyond their capacity.
Dhul Qarnayn’s Quest for the Spring of Life
Abu al-Husayn narrated with his chain from Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali [from his father, from his grandfather Ali] ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with them, that he said: Dhul Qarnayn was a righteous servant who had ruled what lay between East and West. He had as an intimate from the angels an angel named Rafail who would come to and visit Dhul Qarnayn. While they conversed one day, Dhul Qarnayn said: O Rafail, tell me about your worship in heaven. Rafail wept and said: O Dhul Qarnayn, what is your worship compared to ours. In the heavens, some angels stand forever and never sit, angels who prostrate and never raise their heads, angels who bow and never stand upright, and angels who raise their faces and never sit. They say: Glory be to the Sovereign, the Holy, Lord of the angels and the Spirit. Our Lord, we have not worshipped You as You deserve. Dhul Qarnayn wept intensely, then said: O Rafail, I love to live so that I may reach in the worship of my Lord the full extent of obedience to Him. Rafail said: Do you love that? He said: Yes. He said: Allah has in the earth a spring called the Spring of Life, with a decree that whoever drinks from it a single drink will not die until he is the one who asks for death. Dhul Qarnayn said: Do you know where that spring is? Rafail said: No. But we speak in the heaven that Allah has on earth a darkness not trodden by human or jinn, and we think that the spring is in that darkness.
Dhul Qarnayn gathered the sages of the earth and those versed in scriptures and the traces of prophethood. He said: Inform me. Did you find in the books of Allah you have read and in the reports that came to you from the prophets and the scholars before you that Allah placed on earth a spring called the Spring of Life? The scholars said: No. Dhul Qarnayn said: Did you find that Allah placed on earth a darkness that neither human nor jinn treads? They said: No. A scholar among them, named Afshanjir, said: O king, why do you ask this? He informed him of the report and of what Rafail had said about the spring and the darkness. The scholar said: O king, I read in Adam’s bequest that Allah placed on earth a darkness not trodden by human or jinn. Dhul Qarnayn said: In what land is it? He said: I found it at the horn of the sun.
So Dhul Qarnayn sent throughout the land and gathered to him people, the jurists, nobles, and kings. Then he set out seeking the place where the sun rises. He travelled until he reached the edge of the darkness in twelve years. The darkness was not night but a darkness like smoke rising. He encamped, then gathered the scholars of his army and said: I wish to enter this darkness. The scholars said: O king, the prophets before you did not seek this darkness, so do not seek it. We fear that something you dislike may befall you and that there will be corruption in the earth. He said: I must enter it. The scholars prostrated and said: O king, desist from this darkness and do not seek it. If we knew that by seeking it you would attain what you desire, we would fear blame from Allah. But we fear that something will befall you which will cause corruption in the earth and upon it. He said: I must enter it. The scholars said: As you wish.
Dhul Qarnayn said: Which beasts see best at night? They said: Horses. He said: Which of them sees best? They said: The females. He said: Which females? They said: Virgins.
Dhul Qarnayn gathered six thousand virgin mares, and from his army he chose six thousand men of endurance and intellect, giving each man a horse. He appointed al-Khidr over his vanguard of two thousand. Al-Khidr was Dhul Qarnayn’s minister and the son of his maternal aunt. Dhul Qarnayn remained with four thousand. He said to the people: Do not depart from this camp for twelve years. If we return to you, so be it; otherwise, return to your lands.
Al-Khidr said: O king, we are entering a darkness. We do not know how far the travel in it is, and we will not see one another. How will we deal with getting lost if it happens to us?
Dhul Qarnayn gave al-Khidr a red bead and said: When you are lost, throw this bead to the ground. If it cries out, those who are lost should return to it. Al-Khidr set off ahead of Dhul Qarnayn, marching while Dhul Qarnayn encamped. Al-Khidr understood what Dhul Qarnayn was seeking, though Dhul Qarnayn concealed it from him.
As al-Khidr marched, a valley confronted him. He thought the spring was in the valley. When he reached its edge, he said to his companions: Stand firm. Let no man move from his place. He threw the bead into the valley and remained long. Then the bead lit u,p and he sought its sound until he reached it. It was at the edge of the spring. Al-Khidr removed his clothes and entered the spring. Its water was whiter than milk and sweeter than honey. He drank, bathed, and performed wudu. Then he emerged, donned his clothes, and threw the bead toward his companions. It cried out. Al-Khidr returned to his sound and to his companions, took it, mounted, and travelled on.
Dhul Qarnayn passed by and missed the valley. They journeyed in that darkness forty days and forty nights, then emerged into a light that was not the light of sun or moon, over red land and sand. There was a palace built in that land, a league by a league in size, walled with no door. Dhul Qarnayn encamped his army, then went out alone and entered the palace. He found an iron bar whose ends rested on the edges of the palace, and a black bird like a swallow, or likened to a swallow, its beak attached to the iron, suspended between heaven and earth. When the bird heard Dhul Qarnayn’s rustle, it said: Who is this? He said: I am Dhul Qarnayn. The bird said: O Dhul Qarnayn, was what lay behind you not enough until you reached me? O Dhul Qarnayn, tell me, have buildings of baked brick and plaster increased? He said: Yes. The bird shook and swelled until it reached a third of the iron. Then it said: Have false testimonies increased on earth? He said: Yes. The bird shook and swelled until it reached two-thirds of the iron. Then it said: O Dhul Qarnayn, tell me, have musical instruments increased on earth? He said: Yes. It shook and swelled until it filled the iron and blocked what lay between the walls of the palace. Dhul Qarnayn rejoiced. The bird said: Have people abandoned the testimony that there is no god but Allah? He said: No. The bird contracted by one-third. Then it said: Have they abandoned the prescribed prayer? He said: No. The bird contracted by one-third. Then it said: Have people abandoned the ghusl of janabah? He said: No. The bird returned to its original state. Then it said: O Dhul Qarnayn, ascend this stairway to the top of the palace. He ascended to a roof where a man stood. When he heard Dhul Qarnayn’s rustle, he said: Who is this? He said: I am Dhul Qarnayn. He said: O Dhul Qarnayn, was what lay behind you not enough until you reached me? He said: Who are you? He said: I am the one entrusted with the Trumpet. The Hour has drawn near, and I await the command of my Lord to blow, so I will blow. He handed him a stone and said: Take this. If it is satisfied, you are satisfied; if it hungers, you hunger. He returned to his companions and placed the stone in one pan of a scale and a stone in the other. The stone outweighed it. They kept adding stones until a thousand, and that stone still outweighed them all.
Al-Khidr took a handful of earth and placed it in one pan, and took a stone from those stones, put it in the other pan, and placed with it a handful of earth upon the stone Dhul Qarnayn had brought. The scales balanced. Al-Khidr said: This is a parable for you. The son of Adam is never satisfied until earth is heaped upon him, just as this stone was not satisfied until earth was placed upon it. He said: You have spoken the truth, O Khidr. I will not seek after tracks in the lands after this journey. He set off returning. When they were in the midst of the darkness, they trod the valley with the chrysolite. Those with him said: What is beneath us? Dhul Qarnayn said: Take from it. Whoever takes it will regret and whoever leaves it will regret it. Some took and some left. When they emerged from the darkness it was chrysolite. Both the taker and the leaver regretted. Then Dhul Qarnayn returned to Dumat al-Jandal, which was his dwelling, and remained there until he died.
Al-Hasan al-Basri said: Dhul Qarnayn would ride with six hundred thousand at his vanguard and six hundred thousand at his rear. Ibn al-Athir in al-Kamil, holding that Dhul Qarnayn is Alexander, said: When he entered the darknes,s he took four hundred of his companions seeking the Spring of Immortality. He travelled therein eighteen days, then emerged without finding it. Al-Khidr was at his vanguard, so he found it, bathed in it, and drank from it. Allah knows best.
The Description of Building the Barrier
As for the barrier, there is no construction on the face of the earth more august than it or more beneficial for people in their worldly affairs. Al-Bukhari said: A man said to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him: I have seen the barrier. He said: How did you see it? He said: Like variegated cloth of small squares. He said: You have seen it thus. Al-Bukhari mentioned this decisively in suspended form.
Abu al-Husayn ibn al-Munadi mentioned, from what the Persians possess of their inherited books: When Dhul Qarnayn resolved to go to the sun’s rising, he took the route of Kabul in India and Tibet. The kings met him with great gifts, noble salutations, obedience, and wealth, until he came to a foul, black land which he crossed in a month’s travel. Guides came to him and led him to lofty fortresses and cities emptied of their people, with remnants remaining in them who asked him collectively to block for them the pass between them and Yajuj and Majuj. He went to it and encamped with his massive, awe-inspiring army, with him philosophers, craftsmen, and smiths. He made great iron cauldrons and iron ladles, and ordered that each four of those cauldrons be set upon a base, each measuring about fifty cubits. He ordered the craftsmen to strike iron bricks. They fashioned copper and iron and kindled fire upon it until it became stones such as people had not seen, resembling the mountain of the barrier. Each brick was a cubit and a half by the greater cubit, with a thickness of a span.
They continued building the barrier from the side of the mountain and made in its middle a great gate whose height was less than its width. The width was one hundred cubits, each leaf fifty cubits, and the height fifty cubits. Upon it was a great lock of about ten cubits, and above it by some cubits a bolt longer than the lock. All of it was smooth like the smoothness of the mountain and of its color.
They said that when he finished building the barrier, he ordered that fire be kindled upon it from bottom to top, and it became fused, like a single stone resembling the mountain. When he completed it, he turned back after meeting the nations beyond Yajuj and Majuj.
Abu al-Husayn said: It reached me from Khurdadhbah who said: Salam. The interpreter related to me: When al-Wathiq saw in a dream that the barrier built by Dhul Qarnayn between Yajuj and Majuj had opened, he sent me and said: Go see it and bring me its report. He assigned to me fifty men, gave me five thousand dinars, ten thousand dirhams as indemnity, and ordered one thousand dirhams for each man with me and provisions for six months. He gave me two hundred mules to carry food and water. We set out from Samarra with a letter from al-Wathiq to Ishaq ibn Ismail, governor of Armenia, who was in Tbilisi, to forward us. He wrote to Ishaq, lord of al-Sarir, who wrote to the king of al-Lan, who wrote to the king of the Khazars. From the king of the Khazars, we travelled a day and a night. He sent with us fifty guides. We travelled from him for twenty-five days, then reached a black, foul-smelling land. Before entering it, we had stocked perfumes to smell against its hateful odour. We travelled in it for ten days, then came to ruined cities and travelled in them for twenty-seven days. We asked about those cities that Yajuj and Majuj had overrun and ruined. Then we came to fortresses near the mountain of the barrier in a ravine of it.
In those fortresses were people who spoke Arabic and Persian, Muslims who recited the Quran. They had kuttab schools and mosques. They asked: From where have you come? We told them we were envoys of the Commander of the Faithful. They marvelled and said: The Commander of the Faithful! We said: Yes. They said: Is he an old man or a youth? We said: A youth. They marvelled and said: Where is he? We said: In Iraq, in a city called Samarra. They said: We have never heard of this.
We then travelled to a smooth mountain with no greenery. There was a mountain cut by a valley one hundred and fifty cubits wide, and in it was the barrier. There were two buttresses built for walking along the mountain on both sides of the valley, each buttress twenty-five cubits wide, with ten cubits visible below them outside the gate, and upon it strong construction of iron sunk in copper to a thickness of fifty cubits. There was an iron girder whose ends rested on the two buttresses, one hundred and twenty cubits long, placed upon the buttresses, each about ten cubits across and five cubits wide. Above the girder, there was a construction of that iron sunk in copper up to the mountain’s summit to the extent of sight, with iron merlons above. On each merlon were two horns pointing to one another. There was an iron gate with two leaves hanging, each leaf fifty cubits wide and fifty cubits high and five cubits thick. Their uprights were set in a turning socket. Upon the gate was a lock seven cubits long, a cubit thick in circumference, with the lock’s height from the ground twenty-five cubits. Above the lock by about five cubits was a bolt longer than the lock. The hollow of each was two cubits. Upon the bolt was a key locked in place, a cubit and a half long with twelve teeth, each like the largest pestle of a mortar, hanging by a chain eight cubits long and four handspans around. The ring holding the chain was like the ring of a mangonel. The door’s threshold was ten cubits, spread to one hundred cubits, apart from what lay under the buttresses, of which five cubits were visible. All these measures was by the black cubit.
The chief of those fortresses rides every Friday with ten horsemen, each with an iron mallet weighing one hundred and fifty ratls. They strike the lock with those mallets several times each day so that the gatekeepers may hear the sound and know there are guardians there, and those here may know that no change has been made to the gate. When our companions strike the lock and place their ears, they hear a humming from within.
Near this place is a great fortress measuring ten farsakhs by ten farsakhs, short of one hundred farsakhs. By the gate are two fortresses, each two hundred cubits by two hundred cubits. At the doors of these two fortresses are two trees. Between the two fortresses is a sweet spring. In one fortress are the construction tools used to build the barrier, of cauldrons, iron, and iron ladles. On every base are four cauldrons like soap cauldrons. There remain bricks stuck together by rust. Each brick is a cubit and a half with a span of thickness.
They were asked there whether they had seen anyone from Yajuj and Majuj. They mentioned that they once saw some above the merlons. A black wind blew and cast them to their side, and the size of a man among them by the eye’s estimate was a cubit and a half.
Salam the interpreter said: When we returned, the guides led us toward Khurasan. We travelled until we came out behind Samarqand by seven farsakhs. The people of the fortresses had provisioned us sufficiently. We then reached Abd Allah ibn Tahir.
Salam said: He granted me one hundred thousand dirhams, and each man with me five hundred dirhams. He assigned five dirhams daily for the horseman and three for the footman until we reached our destination. We returned to Samarra after twenty-eight months from our departure. Ibn Khurdadhbah said: Salam the interpreter recounted to me the sum of this report, then I read it from a letter written by al-Wathiq.
Ibn al-Athir in al-Kamil said: When the people of those lands saw Alexander, they complained to him of the evil of Yajuj and Majuj, as Allah informed about them in His saying: Then he followed a way until, when he reached between the two barriers, he found beside them a people who could hardly understand speech. They said: O Dhul Qarnayn, indeed Yajuj and Majuj are corrupters in the land. So, may we assign a thing that you make between us and them as a barrier? He said: What my Lord has established me in is better, so assist me with strength. I will make a dam between you and them. He means: What my Lord has given me is better than your payment, but assist me with strength, meaning the workers, craftsmen, and the tools by which the building is done. He said: Bring me sheets of iron. They brought them, and he dug the foundations until he reached water. He placed iron and firewood in layers one above another until, when he made it level with the two sides, which are two mountains, he kindled the fire in the wood until the iron became red-hot, then he poured upon it qitr, molten copper. It became in the place of the wood and between the sheets of iron, and it remained as if it were variegated cloth, red with copper and black with iron. He made its top with iron merlons, so Yajuj and Majuj were prevented from going out to the lands near them. Allah Most High said: So they were not able to scale it, nor were they able to pierce it.
When he finished with the barrier, he entered the darkness on the side of the northern pole while the sun was southerly, hence the darkness. Otherwise, there is no place on earth but that the sun rises upon it continually.
His Death
It has been narrated that al-Khidr drank from the Spring of Life, while it eluded Dhul Qarnayn. Some claimed that when he missed it, he grieved. The astrologers said to him: Do not grieve. We see a term for you, and you will not die except upon land of iron and a sky of wood. He turned back, intending Rome, burying the treasures of every land he passed, recording what he buried, its amount, and its place, and carrying the record with him until he reached Babylon. He suffered a nosebleed during the journey and fell from his mount. A coat of mail was spread for him, and coats of mail then were of plates. He lay upon it, and the sun harmed him, so they called for a shield to shade him. He lay with iron beneath him and wood above him and said: This is the land of iron and a sky of wood. He was certain of death.
His Letter to His Mother Consoling Her About Himself
From Abd Allah ibn Ziyad who said: A reader of the ancient books told me that when Dhul Qarnayn returned from the East and West of the earth, he reached the land of Babylon and fell seriously ill. He feared that he would die after having subjugated lands and amassed wealth. He encamped in Babylon and called for his scribe and said: Lighten for me the pangs of death by a letter you will write to my mother, consoling her for me. Seek the help of some scholars of Persia, then read it to me. So he wrote:
In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate. From Alexander, son of Caesar, companion of the people of earth briefly with his body and companion of the people of heaven long with his spirit, to his mother Ruqayyah, she of purity, who did not enjoy her fruit in the abode of nearness and will soon be his neighbour in the abode of farness. O my mother, O possessor of wisdom, I ask you by my mercy, my affection, and your bearing me: Have you found anything with lasting stability or a perpetually enduring image? Have you not seen the tree whose branches grow fresh, whose fruit appears, whose leaves entwine, then soon the branch is broken, the fruit falls, and the leaf scatters? Have you not seen the bright plant that is fresh in the morning then withered by evening? Have you not seen the shining day, then the dark night succeeds it? Have you not seen the radiant moon on the night of its fullness, how an eclipse covers it? Have you not seen the blazing sparks of fire, how swiftly they die? Have you not seen the sweet, clear waters, how quickly they flow into changing seas? Have you not seen this creation living in the world filling the horizons, over which things rise high, and upon which eyes and hearts are enraptured? There are but two things: one born and one dead. Both are bound to perish. Have you not heard it said to this abode: Breathe upon your people, for you are not their true home? O giver of death, o bequeather of sorrows, o divider between loved ones, o destroyer of habitation. Have you not seen every created being proceed upon what it does not know? Have you seen my mother, a giver who does not take back, a lender who does not collect, a depositor who does not reclaim his deposit? O my mother, if anyone were worthy of weeping, then let the heaven weep for its stars, the fish for their seas, the air for its birds, the earth for its offspring and the plants that emerge from it, and let man weep for his soul which dies every hour and at every blink.
O my mother, death will not spare me because I knew it would descend upon me. So do not tire yourself with grief, for you were not ignorant that I am among those who die. O my mother, I wrote this letter hoping you will take admonition from it and that it will find a good place with you. Do not disappoint my hope and do not grieve my soul. O my mother, I know with certainty that what I am going to is better than the place I am in, purer than anxieties, sorrows, illnesses, fatigue, and diseases. So rejoice for my departure and prepare to follow after. O my mother, my mention in this world has been cut off and what I was remembered by of kingship and opinion. So make for me after me a remembrance by your forbearance, patience, and contentment. O my mother, people will look upon this of yours, some pleased, some displeased, some listening, some speaking. So do well by me and by yourself in that. O my mother, peace in this abode is little and passing, so let there be for you and for us in the abode of eternity the enduring peace.
So reflect with understanding on the deposit of your soul lest you be like the women in their panic, just as I did not approve of men resembling weakness and submission, and that was not pleasing to you in me. Then he died, may Allah have mercy on him. It was narrated from Kaab al-Ahbar that he said to Muawiyah: When death approached Dhul Qarnayn, he instructed his mother that when he died, she should prepare food, gather the women of the city, place it before them, and allow them to partake except one who had been bereaved. None of them reached out to it. She said to them: Glory be to Allah, are you all bereaved? They said: Yes, by Allah, there is none among us but has been bereaved. That was consolation for his mother. When his coffin was carried to her, surrounded by the nobility of the realm, and she saw him, she said: O you whose forbearance reached the sky, whose kingship spanned the quarters of the earth, before whom kings submitted by force, what is it with you today that you sleep and do not wake, and are silent and do not speak? Who informed you that you admonished me and I took admonition, and consoled me and I was consoled? Peace be upon you in life and in death. Then she ordered his burial.
The Age of Dhul Qarnayn
They differed about the length of his life. It was mentioned in the People of the Book that he lived for three thousand years. Abu Bakr ibn Abi Khaythama mentioned that he lived one thousand six hundred years.
As for those who say he lived around forty years, they only confuse him with Alexander the Great. Ibn al-Athir in al-Kamil said: He returned to Iraq and died on his way in Shahrazur of quinsy. His age was thirty-six years according to one report. He was buried in a coffin of gold studded with jewels and anointed with aloeswood so it would not change and was carried to his mother in Alexandria.
His reign was fourteen years. He killed Dara in the third year of his reign. He built twelve cities, among them Isfahan, called Jay, the city of Herat, Marw, Samarqand, and in al-Sawad a city for Rowshanak, daughter of Dara, and in the land of the Greeks a city, and in Egypt, Alexandria.
When Alexander died, the sages with him of the Greeks, Persians, Indians, and others, circled around him. He used to gather them and be at ease with their speech. They stood over him, and the eldest said: Let each of you speak a word that consoles the elite and admonishes the public. He placed his hand upon the coffin and said: The captor of captives is now captive. Another said: This king used to hoard gold, and now gold hoards him. Another said: How little people desire this body and how eager they are for the coffin. Another said: Of the most wondrous things is that the strong have been overcome, while the weak are heedless and deluded. Another said: You who made your term a guarantee and your hopes visible, why did you not put your term far away so you might reach some of your hope? Rather, why did you not realise your hope by refraining from letting your term pass? Another said: O you who strove and stood erect, what failed you when you needed it, so your burdens were left upon you and your sins committed, so you gathered for others while the sin is upon you. Another said: You used to admonish us, and no admonition from you is more eloquent than your death. Whoever has intellect, let him use it. Whoever takes admonition, let him take admonition. Another said: Many a one who feared you from behind now stands before you and does not fear you. Many a one eager for your silence when you would not be silent is now eager for your speech when you do not speak. Another said: How often did this soul kill lest it be killed, yet it has died. Another, keeper of the books of wisdom, said: You used to order me not to be far from you, and today I cannot draw near to you. Another said: This is a great day. Its evil has come forward that used to be backward, and its good has retreated that used to come forward. Whoever weeps for the one whose kingdom has passed, let him weep. Another said: O you of mighty dominion, your dominion has vanished as the shadow of clouds vanishes, and the traces of your kingdom have been effaced as the traces of flies are effaced. Another said: O you for whom the earth became narrow in its length and breadth, would that I knew your state with what has encompassed you of it. Another said: Marvel at one whose end is this. How did he make himself famous by gathering perishing wealth and vanishing stubble? Another said: O gathered throng and excellent one laid down, do not desire what does not endure in its joy and whose delight is cut off. Clarity and guidance have become clear to you from error and corruption. Another said: Look at the dream of the sleeper, how it ended and the shade of clouds, how it cleared. Another said: O you whose anger was death, why did you not become angry at death? Another said: You have seen this departed king. Let the remaining king take admonition. Another said: The one at whose words ears used to listen has fallen silent, so now let every silent one speak. Another said: There will catch up with you one who rejoiced at your death just as you caught up with one whose death pleased you. Another said: Why can you not move a single limb though you used to bear the kingdom of the earth? Rather, why do you not turn away from the narrow place you are in, though you used to turn away from the breadth of lands? Another said: If a world whose end is this, then renunciation is more fitting in its beginning. The keeper of his table said: The cushions have been spread and the pillows arranged, yet I do not see the chief of the people. The keeper of his treasury said: You used to order me to store up. To whom shall I deliver your treasures? Another said: This long, wide world has been folded for you to seven spans. Had you been certain of that, you would not have burdened yourself in seeking. His wife Rowshanak said: I did not think that the vanquisher of Dara would be vanquished. The words I heard from you contain gloating, for he has left the cup from which he drank for the multitude to drink. His mother, when news of his death reached her, said: If I have lost my son’s command, his remembrance has not left my heart.
These are the words of the sages. In them are admonitions and fine wisdom, and for this reason, we have recorded them.
