me to conquer.' Then he sat down and wept because there were not other worlds for him to conquer. In reality, while Alexander did travel a great deal, he did not travel further west than ancient Libya and did not travel further east than the fringes of India. According to historians, Alexander invaded India following his desire to reach the "ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea." However, when he reached the Hyphasis River in the Punjab in 326 BC, his army nearly mutinied and refused to march further east, exhausted by years of campaigning. Alexander's desire to reach "the ends of the Earth" was instilled by his tutor Aristotle: Alexander derived his concept of `Asia' from the teaching of Aristotle, for whom `the inhabited earth' was surrounded by `the Great sea' Ocean, and was divided into three areas – `Europe, Libya and Asia.' Thus the earth was not round but flat, and `Asia' was limited on the west by the Tanais (Don), the inland sea and the Nile, and on the east by `India' and `the Great Sea' ... he was mistaken in supposing that from the ridge of the Paropamisadae (Hindu Kush) one would see `the outer sea' and that `India' was a small peninsula running east into that sea. This view of the world taught by Aristotle and followed by Alexander is apparent in Aristotle's Meteorologica, a treatise on earth sciences where he discusses the "length" and "width" of "the inhabited earth." However, Aristotle knew that the Earth is spherical and even provided observational proof of this fact. Aristotle's cosmological view was that the Earth is round but he prescribed to the notion of an "inhabited Earth," surrounded by the Ocean, and an "uninhabited Earth" (though exactly how much of this was understood by his student Alexander the Great is not known). Islamic depictions of Alexander the Great Arabic traditions Alexander the Great features prominently in early Arabic literature. There are many surviving versions of the Alexander romance in Arabic that were written after the conquest of Islam. It is also thought that pre-Islamic Arabic versions of the Alexander romance may have existed. The earliest surviving Arabic narrative of the Alexander romance was composed by Umara ibn Zayd (767–815 AD). In the tale, Alexander the Great travels a great deal, builds the Wall against Gog and Magog, searches for the Water of Life (Fountain of