{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/pro/qar01.htm","path":"isl/pro/qar01.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/pro/qar01.htm","text":"Then \u00d0ul-Qarnain got back with his folks and went to the east to see\nthe nations in that direction and he did with them as he did with people\nof the west, and when he finished his trip to the east he went back to\nthe north of the lands of Romans as it is mentioned by the holy book: he\nfound upon their hither side a folk that scarce could understand a saying(Al-Kahf:93),\nand they were filling the lands and they are Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and\nMagog) and they were like animals, eat and drink and reproduce and they\nwere made of males and females and they look like people in their bodies\nand faces, but they were different in other points, for their height did\nnot exceed five hand-spans, and all had the same shape, they were naked,\nnever wear anything or any shoes, and they had hair like the hair of camels\nthat protected them against hot weather and coldness, and everyone of them\nhad two ears, one of them had camel-hair and the other had simple hair\nand the backs of the ears are like their fronts as well, and they had paws\ninstead of nails and had fangs instead of teeth, and when one of them desires\nto sleep he would make one ear as a bed and cover his self with the other\nand they are enough to cover him, and their food is mostly from the sea\nwith its various types of foods that it provides them with every year at\na certain time by clouds and so they make a living by that, and when they\nget that food they get fertile and fat and reproduce and that would be\nenough for them until the next year and they eat nothing else, but if the\nsea did not provide them with food for one reason or another then they\nwould get hungry and wander all over the lands and eat everything they\nwould face in their way and they are more harmful than plagues and locusts,\nand if they got into some lands they would make the people of the land\nflee away for they are not bearable for their large numbers and their strength,\nand no one can get closer to them for being afraid of them and because\nof their bad smell, and if they approached some lands, their voices would\nbe heard from a distance as far as one hundred leagues, and they spread\nterror more than storms and earthquakes would do for their large numbers,\nand they got humming sounds like bees but it is greater, and when they\nget into a land they would devour its beasts and insects until nothing\nis left for they leave nothing without devouring it.\nThey say none of them does not know when to die, because each one of\nthem die after having one thousand descendants, so whenever one of them\ngets one thousand descendants, they get prepared to die and asks no more\nfor a living, and then when the nations around them sensed their arrival\nby their humming sounds and \u00d0ul-Qarnain was close to them, they asked\nfor his help against Gog and Magog, and said to him: we've known what God\ngave you of power and of armies with darkness and light, and we are the\nneighbors of Gog and Magog and only these mountains between us, and they\nhave no other way except one way through two mountains and if they arrived\nto our lands they would destroy us all with our animals unless we escape\nfar away from our lands for they leave nothing unless they eat it, and\nthey devour the cattles and beasts and insects along with snakes and worms\nand scorpions and everything that has a soul and no doubt we have that\nthey fill the land and make its people flee away, and we are afraid at\nany moment that they show up from between these two mountains, and God\ngave you the power and wisdom with guidance, so make a barrier between\nus. He said to them then: bring me pieces of iron, and he appointed for\nthem the ores of iron and copper, and he appointed for them two places\non the two mountains to get the ores from and showed them how to extract\nthem, and when they obtained them they said: by what power shall we cut\niron and copper? He then extracted another mineral from the ground that\nwas called the S\u00e2moor, and it is so bright, and if any of it was\ndropped on iron or copper or any other mineral it would cause it to melt,\nso he made from it some tools that they can use to make anything they want\n[I wonder if this S\u00e2moor metal is meant to be Chrome?].\nWith it (S\u00e2moor), Solomon ben David (PUH) cut the stones for\nthe Temple and the demons brought him this mineral (metal). Then, however,\nthey collected whatever they want from iron pieces and copper pieces to\nmake a barrier, and he (\u00d0ul-Qarnain) made a fire for the iron that\nthey made like stones between the two mountains and they melted down the\ncopper upon it, and so the copper had been like the mud between the stones\nand the barrier was built, and when they measured the distance they found\nit is three miles, almost one league or twelve thousand cubits as measured\nby the arms of men, and then he dag a deep base for it that almost reached\nthe water, and he made the width of the barrier as thick as one mile, that\nis four thousand cubits as measured by the arms of the average man, and\nit might be as measured by their arms at that time and only God knows.\nIt is mentioned that they made layers of iron and copper and filled the\ngap between the two mountains and it started to reflect yellow and red\ncolors because of copper with some black color of the iron, and all of\nthat done by the instructions of \u00d0ul-Qarnain, and Gog and Magog come\nto this barrier every year once as they say and that after they spread\nover their lands and when they reach the barrier the stop and begin to\ndig below it until they become despaired they then get back to spread all\nover their lands and they will stay like this until the doomsday time is\nnear, so when its conditions are near and as they mentioned it is the appearance\nof Al-Mahdi (PUH) [the last viceroy and Imam for Shiites that will appear\nwith Jesus (PUH) to fill earth with justice] may our souls be a ransom\nfor him and may God make his appearance so soon, at that time maybe God\nwill open it (the barrier) for them (Gog and Magog) and it might be a sign\nfor the appearance of him (Al-Mahdi) (PUH) to increase the troubles for\npeople or it might be a punishment for them for their bad souls and all\nof that at the end of time. When \u00d0ul-Qarnain finished building the\nbarrier he got back wandering and in his wandering he met the Wise Nation\nthat are part of Moses' nation that order with justice and work with it,\nand he stayed with them until his death and he did not have such a long\nage with them and he got so old and only God knows, and the period between\nhis wandering all over the lands and his death was five hundred years as\nit is mentioned, and we've something opposite to this and that is another\ntale also and God is the Knower.","title":"The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: \u00d0ul-Qarn...","type":"page"}