knowledge of the Great Wall of China (the 12th century scholar al-Idrisi drew a map for Roger of Sicily showing the "Land of Gog and Magog" in Mongolia), or of various Sassanid Persian walls built in the Caspian area against the northern barbarians, or a conflation of the two. also journeys to the western and eastern extremities ("qarns", tips) of the Earth. Ernst claims that finding the sun setting in a "muddy spring" in the West is equivalent to the "poisonous sea" found by Alexander in the Syriac legend. In the Syriac story Alexander tested the sea by sending condemned prisoners into it, but the Quran allegedly changes this into a general administration of justice. In the East both the Syrian legend and the Quran, according to Ernst, have Alexander/ find a people who live so close to the rising sun that they have no protection from its heat. Since Dhu al-Qarnayn is said to have lived near the time of Abraham, several medieval exegetes and historians did not identify him with Alexander to avoid the chronological discrepancy. Other notable Muslim commentators, including Ibn Kathir,:100-101 Ibn Taymiyyah:101 and Naser Makarem Shirazi, have also used theological arguments to reject the Alexander identification: that Alexander lived only a short time, whereas (according to some) lived for 700 years as a sign of God's blessing, though this is not mentioned in the Quran; worshipped only one God, while Alexander according to them was a polytheist, a view however rejected by some traditional Muslim scholars who identify him as . King Ṣaʿb Dhu-Marāthid The various campaigns of mentioned in Q:18:83-101 have also been attributed to the South Arabian Himyarite King Ṣaʿb Dhu-Marāthid (also known as al-Rāʾid). According to Wahb ibn Munabbih, as quoted by Ibn Hisham, King Ṣaʿb was a conqueror who was given the epithet after meeting al-Khidr in Jerusalem. He then travels to the ends of the earth, conquering or converting people until being led by al-Khidr through the land of darkness. According to Wheeler, it is possible that some elements of these accounts that were originally associated with Sa'b have been incorporated into stories which identify with Alexander. Cyrus the Great In modern times, some Muslim scholars have argued in favour of being actually Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire and conqueror of Egypt and Babylon. Proponents of this view cite Daniel's vision in the Old Testament where