Shaddad (king of 'Ad)

Shaddad son of 'Ad is a figure of later Arabic legend, not of the Quran. The Quran mentions 'Ad and 'Iram of the pillars, the like of which was never created in the lands' (89:6–8) but names no king. Medieval storytellers and commentators filled the gap with Shaddad, a tyrant who ruled the 'Ad and much of the world.

In the best-known version, Shaddad hears of paradise and decides to build its equal on earth: a city of gold and silver bricks, jeweled columns and gardens, which takes centuries to complete. When he finally sets out to see it, he and his people are destroyed by a blast from heaven before he can enter. The tale appears in One Thousand and One Nights, and some medieval writers even credited him with building the Egyptian pyramids.

There is no archaeological record of Shaddad. The Quranic 'Ad were destroyed by wind for rejecting the prophet Hud; the golden city is later legend, and no site has been securely identified as Iram.