The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Ðul-Qarn...

This is an Islamic legendary-exegetical narrative, working within the tradition of Quranic tafsir (commentary) and medieval Arabic cosmography. It expands on the story of Dhul-Qarnayn (the "Two-Horned One") from Surah Al-Kahf, focusing on his journey east and north and his construction of the famous iron-and-copper barrier to contain Gog and Magog (Ya'juj and Ma'juj). The text offers unusually elaborate physical description of Gog and Magog as diminutive (five hand-spans tall), animalistic humanoids who use their oversized ears as bedding, subsist on sea-provided food delivered by seasonal clouds, and die only after producing a thousand descendants. Notable is the introduction of a mysterious metal called Sâmoor — a brilliantly bright substance that melts iron and copper on contact, used to build the barrier and also attributed to Solomon's construction of the Temple — with a translator's bracketed aside speculating it might be chromium. The narrative closes with a distinctly Shia eschatological framing, linking the eventual opening of the barrier to the appearance of Al-Mahdi at the end of times. Readers interested in medieval Islamic legendary literature, Quranic expansion narratives, or the cross-traditional figure of Gog and Magog will find it densely specific, if uneven in its blending of sacred text, folklore, and numerological precision.

The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Ðul-Qarn...

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