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Getting Back From West to The East
Then Ðul-Qarnain got back with his folks and went to the east to see
the nations in that direction and he did with them as he did with people
of the west, and when he finished his trip to the east he went back to
the north of the lands of Romans as it is mentioned by the holy book: he
found upon their hither side a folk that scarce could understand a saying(Al-Kahf:93),
and they were filling the lands and they are Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and
Magog) and they were like animals, eat and drink and reproduce and they
were made of males and females and they look like people in their bodies
and faces, but they were different in other points, for their height did
not exceed five hand-spans, and all had the same shape, they were naked,
never wear anything or any shoes, and they had hair like the hair of camels
that protected them against hot weather and coldness, and everyone of them
had two ears, one of them had camel-hair and the other had simple hair
and the backs of the ears are like their fronts as well, and they had paws
instead of nails and had fangs instead of teeth, and when one of them desires
to sleep he would make one ear as a bed and cover his self with the other
and they are enough to cover him, and their food is mostly from the sea
with its various types of foods that it provides them with every year at
a certain time by clouds and so they make a living by that, and when they
get that food they get fertile and fat and reproduce and that would be
enough for them until the next year and they eat nothing else, but if the
sea did not provide them with food for one reason or another then they
would get hungry and wander all over the lands and eat everything they
would face in their way and they are more harmful than plagues and locusts,
and if they got into some lands they would make the people of the land
flee away for they are not bearable for their large numbers and their strength,
and no one can get closer to them for being afraid of them and because
of their bad smell, and if they approached some lands, their voices would
be heard from a distance as far as one hundred leagues, and they spread
terror more than storms and earthquakes would do for their large numbers,
and they got humming sounds like bees but it is greater, and when they
get into a land they would devour its beasts and insects until nothing
is left for they leave nothing without devouring it.
They say none of them does not know when to die, because each one of
them die after having one thousand descendants, so whenever one of them
gets one thousand descendants, they get prepared to die and asks no more
for a living, and then when the nations around them sensed their arrival
by their humming sounds and Ðul-Qarnain was close to them, they asked
for his help against Gog and Magog, and said to him: we've known what God
gave you of power and of armies with darkness and light, and we are the
neighbors of Gog and Magog and only these mountains between us, and they
have no other way except one way through two mountains and if they arrived
to our lands they would destroy us all with our animals unless we escape
far away from our lands for they leave nothing unless they eat it, and
they devour the cattles and beasts and insects along with snakes and worms
and scorpions and everything that has a soul and no doubt we have that
they fill the land and make its people flee away, and we are afraid at
any moment that they show up from between these two mountains, and God
gave you the power and wisdom with guidance, so make a barrier between
us. He said to them then: bring me pieces of iron, and he appointed for
them the ores of iron and copper, and he appointed for them two places
on the two mountains to get the ores from and showed them how to extract
them, and when they obtained them they said: by what power shall we cut
iron and copper? He then extracted another mineral from the ground that
was called the Sâmoor, and it is so bright, and if any of it was
dropped on iron or copper or any other mineral it would cause it to melt,
so he made from it some tools that they can use to make anything they want
[I wonder if this Sâmoor metal is meant to be Chrome?].
With it (Sâmoor), Solomon ben David (PUH) cut the stones for
the Temple and the demons brought him this mineral (metal). Then, however,
they collected whatever they want from iron pieces and copper pieces to
make a barrier, and he (Ðul-Qarnain) made a fire for the iron that
they made like stones between the two mountains and they melted down the
copper upon it, and so the copper had been like the mud between the stones
and the barrier was built, and when they measured the distance they found
it is three miles, almost one league or twelve thousand cubits as measured
by the arms of men, and then he dag a deep base for it that almost reached
the water, and he made the width of the barrier as thick as one mile, that
is four thousand cubits as measured by the arms of the average man, and
it might be as measured by their arms at that time and only God knows.
It is mentioned that they made layers of iron and copper and filled the
gap between the two mountains and it started to reflect yellow and red
colors because of copper with some black color of the iron, and all of
that done by the instructions of Ðul-Qarnain, and Gog and Magog come
to this barrier every year once as they say and that after they spread
over their lands and when they reach the barrier the stop and begin to
dig below it until they become despaired they then get back to spread all
over their lands and they will stay like this until the doomsday time is
near, so when its conditions are near and as they mentioned it is the appearance
of Al-Mahdi (PUH) [the last viceroy and Imam for Shiites that will appear
with Jesus (PUH) to fill earth with justice] may our souls be a ransom
for him and may God make his appearance so soon, at that time maybe God
will open it (the barrier) for them (Gog and Magog) and it might be a sign
for the appearance of him (Al-Mahdi) (PUH) to increase the troubles for
people or it might be a punishment for them for their bad souls and all
of that at the end of time. When Ðul-Qarnain finished building the
barrier he got back wandering and in his wandering he met the Wise Nation
that are part of Moses' nation that order with justice and work with it,
and he stayed with them until his death and he did not have such a long
age with them and he got so old and only God knows, and the period between
his wandering all over the lands and his death was five hundred years as
it is mentioned, and we've something opposite to this and that is another
tale also and God is the Knower.
Next: Other Tales About Gog and Magog and What Ðul-Qarnain Faced