THE SCENE: When Alexander the Great arrived in Turkey, legend has it that the locals asked him for help in containing the threat of the monstrous inhabitants of the land of Gog and Magog. And it just gets weirder from there.
THE TEXT: When Dhu al-Qyarnayn (Alexander) came to the land of Gog and Magog a huge crown of people came before him, beseeching his help against Gog and Magog. They said: “O Victorious King, beyond this mountain live nations who number is known only to God. They destroy our dwelling places and our crops and our fruits. They consume everything, even the grass. Like wild beasts, they slaughter our herds. They even eat the vermin that crawl on the earth. No other species multiplies like they do. Not one of them dies without fathering a thousand children.”
[Alexander] asked: “What do they eat?”
They replied: “Every year two fish swim across the sea to them. Each of the fish, from head to tail, is ten days’ march. In the spring they feed on crocodiles, snakes and sea serpents, for which they beseech the heavens, as other people invoke the heavens for rain. When their invocations are answered, they flourish and grow fat; otherwise they grow thin and weak.”
[Alexander] asked: “What do they look like?”
They said: “Short torsos, wide faces. Their height is half that of a man of medium stature. They have fangs like wild beasts, and claws instead of fingernails. Hair grows on their backbones. They have two enormous ears, one of which is exceedingly hairy on the outside, but hairless inside, the other hairy inside but hairless outside. They wrap themselves in one, and sleep on the other. Their bodies are so hairy that they are completely hidden. They call out to one another like pigeons and bay like dogs. They copulate like animals, wherever they meet.
It is related in some sources that Gog and Magog pick away at the Barrier until they can almost see the sun behind it. Then a voice cries out: “Enough! Tomorrow you will break through!” and they desist. During the night All-Powerful God restores the Barrier to what it way. They next day they dig and tunnel away again, until they are almost on the point of breaking through. Then the voice once more rings out: “Desist! Tomorrow you shall break through, if God so wills!”
Only a short time remains before they break through and descend upon mankind and drink up all the water of the earth until it is completely desiccated. When no one is left, they will shoot an arrow into the sky and it will fall back reddened with something like blood, and they will say: “We have overcome the people of earth, and now we have reached the people of the heavens.” Then All-mighty God will send them a worm called nahaf. It will enter their ears and nostrils and kills them.
– Monuments of the Countries and the Histories of Their Inhabitants, Zakariya al Qazwini, 13th Century AD
