You asked them about a matter for which there is no knowledge with them...

You asked them about a matter for which there is no knowledge with them, and there is with men knowledge of what you want’. So Zulqarnayn rejoiced with an intense happiness, until he descended from his throne and said to him: ‘Come near me!’ So he went near him. فقال: أخبرني.

قال: نعم أيها الملك، إني‏ وجدت في كتاب آدم (عليه السلام) الذي كتب يوم سمي له ما في الأرض من عين أو شجر، فوجدت فيه أن الله عينا تدعى عين الحياة، فيها من الله عزيمة أنه من يشرب منها لم يمت حتى يكون هو الذي يسأل الله الموت، بظلمة لم يطأها إنس و لا جان He said, ‘Inform me’. He said, ‘Yes, O king! I found in the Book of Adam -as which he wrote on the day there were named for him -as whatever is in the earth, from a spring or tree.

So I found in it that for Allah -azwj there is a spring called ‘The spring of life’, wherein from Allah -azwj is a Determination that the one who drinks from it would not die until it so happens that he is the one who asks Allah -azwj for the death, (and) a darkness none has trodden it, neither a human nor a Jinn’.

ففرح ذو القرنين، و قال: ادن مني أيها الغلام، تدري أين موضعها؟ قال: نعم، وجدت في كتاب آدم (عليه السلام) أنها على قرن الشمس،- يعني مطلعها- ففرح ذو القرنين و بعث إلى أهل مملكته، فجمع أشرافهم و فقهاءهم و علماءهم و أهل الحكم منهم، و اجتمع إليه ألف حكيم و عالم و فقيه So Zulqarnayn rejoiced and said: ‘Come near me, o boy! Do you know where its place is?’ He said, ‘Yes. I found in the Book of Adam -as that it is upon a horn of the sun – meaning its emergence’.

So Zulqarnayn was happy and sent a message to the people of his kingdom, and he gathered their noble ones, and their jurists, and their scholars, and the people of the wisdom from them, and there gathered to him a thousand wise ones, and scholars and jurists.

فلما اجتمعوا إليه تهيأ للمسير و تأهب له بأعد العدة و أقوى القوة، فسار بهم يريد مطلع الشمس، يخوض البحار و يقطع الجبال و الفيافي و الأرضين و المفاوز، فسار اثنتي عشرة سنة، حتى انتهى إلى طرف الظلمة، فإذا هي ليست بظلمة ليل و لا دخان، و لكنها هواء يفور مد ما بين الأفقين So when they gathered to him, he prepared for the journey and they prepared for him by the assistance of the numbers and the strength of the strongest ones.

So he travelled with them intending the emergence of the sun, crossing the sea and cutting the mountain (passes), and the plains, and the lands, and the wilderness.