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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