Alexander the Great

Alexander III of Macedon became king in 336 BCE at age 20. In about a decade he defeated the Persian Empire at the Granicus, Issus and Gaugamela, took Egypt, where he visited the oracle of Amun at Siwa, and marched as far as the Indus. He died in Babylon in 323 BCE, not yet 33, and his empire split among his generals.

His legend grew quickly. Coins struck after his death show him with the ram's horns of Amun. Josephus, in the 1st century, mentions iron gates that Alexander closed at a mountain pass against the Scythians. A Syriac text known as the Alexander Legend, usually dated to around 630 CE, has him travel to the ends of the earth and build a gate of iron and brass against the Huns and Gog and Magog.

Most historians therefore connect the Quran's Dhul-Qarnayn, 'the two-horned one', who builds an iron and copper barrier against Gog and Magog, to these Alexander legends. Some Muslim scholars prefer other identifications, such as Cyrus of Persia. The historical Alexander built no such wall.