Then it responded...

Then it responded, and he -as came out to its sound, and there it was upon a side of the spring at which it had paused. And its water was more intensely whiter than the milk, and clear than the sapphire, and sweeter than the honey. فشرب منه، ثم خلع ثيابه و اغتسل منها، ثم لبس ثيابه ثم رمى بالخرزة نحو أصحابه، فأجابته فخرج إلى أصحابه، و ركب و أمرهم بالمسير فساروا So he -as drank from it, then took off his -as clothes and washed from it, then wore his clothes.

Then he -as threw the bead around his -as companions, and it responded. So he -as came out to his -as companions and rode, and ordered them with the travelling. So they travelled.

و مر ذو القرنين بعده، فأخطؤوا الوادي، و سلكوا تلك الظلمة أربعين يوما و أربعين ليلة، ثم خرجوا بضوء ليس بضوء نهار و لا شمس و لا قمر، و لكنه نور، فخرجوا إلى أرض حمراء و رملة خشخاشة فركة كأن حصاها اللؤلؤ، فإذا هو بقصر مبني على طول فرسخ And Zulqarnayn passed by after it, but he mistook the valley, and he travelled that darkness for forty days and forty nights. Then he came out to an illumination which wasn’t the illumination of the day, nor of the sun, nor moon, but it was a light.

Then they came out to a land of red soil, dry, soft, as if its pebbles were like pearls, and there was a castle built upon the length of a Farsakh (3 miles). فجاء ذو القرنين إلى الباب فعسكر عليه، ثم توجه بوجهه وحده إلى القصر، فإذا طائر و إذا حديدة طويلة قد وضع طرفاها على جانبي القصر، و الطير الأسود معلق في تلك الحديدة بين السماء و الأرض مزموم، كأنه الخطاف أو صورة الخطاف أو شبيه بالخطاف، أو هو خطاف So Zulqarnayn came to the door and encamped at it.

Then he diverted his face alone to the castle, and there was a bird, and there was a long iron bar placed upon its end upon a side of the castle, and the bird was black, hanging in that iron bar between the sky and the earth, as if it was a swallow, or an image of the swallow, or it resembled the swallow, or it was a swallow.

فلما سمع خشخشة ذي القرنين، قال: من هذا؟ قال: أنا ذو القرنين، فقال الطائر: يا ذا القرنين، أما كفاك ما وراءك حتى وصلت إلى حد بابي هذا؟ ففرق ذو القرنين فرقا شديدا، فقال: يا ذا القرنين، لا تخف و أخبرني. قال سل قال: هل كثر بنيان الآجر و الجص في الأرض؟ قال: نعم When the clinks of Zulqarnayn were heard, it said, ‘Who is this?’ He said: ‘I am Zulqarnayn’. So the bird said, ‘O Zulqarnayn!

Does it not suffice you what is behind you until you arrive to a limit of this door of mine?’ So Zulqarnayn panicked with an intense panic, so it said, ‘O Zulqarnayn! Do not fear, and inform me’. He said: ‘Ask’.