Alexander the Great in the Quran rhetorical type depending on the Cleitarchus tradition, and with this he amalgamated a collection of imaginary letters derived from an "Epistolary Romance of Alexander" written in the first century B.C. He also included two long letters from Alexander to his mother Olympias and his tutor Aristotle describing his marvellous adventures in India and at the end of the World. These are the literary expression of a living popular tradition and as such are the most remarkable and interesting part of the work. The Greek variants of the "Alexander romance" continued to evolve until, in the 4th century, the Greek legend
Alexander the Great in the Quran is no identification at all. ... Personally, I have not the least doubt that Zul-Qarnain is meant to be Alexander the Great, the historic Alexander, and not the legendary Alexander... In his commentary of the Quran, Abul Ala Maududi (1903–1979 AD) noted that historically most Muslim scholars had endorsed the identification of Dhul-Qarnayn with Alexander the Great, but recent commentators have forwarded an alternative theory that Dhul-Qarnayn is Cyrus the Great: The identification of Zul-Qarnain has been a controversial matter from the earliest times. In general the commentators have been of the opinion that he was Alexander the Great but