Dhul-qarnayn

Dhul-Qarnayn

Dhul-Qarnayn (Arabic: ذو القرنين ḏū al-qarnayn, ), literally "the possessor of two horns" is a figure mentioned in the Qur'an, the sacred scripture of Islam, where he is described as a great and righteous ruler who built the wall that keeps Gog and Magog from attacking the people whom he met on his journey to the east (i.e., the rising of the sun). The word "qarn" means a horn, but can also mean a generation or a century. Thus "dhul qarnain" literally means the "two-horned one", or "one belonging to the two generations or two centuries". According to a classical interpretation, the name is due to his having reached the two 'Horns' of the Sun, east and west, where it rises and where it sets" during his journey.