Alexander the Great in the Quran called them the Caspian Gates. Twenty and two Kings did I shut up therein. These pseudepigraphic letters from Alexander to his mother Olympias and his tutor Aristotle, describing his marvellous adventures at the end of the World, date back to the original Greek recension α written in the 4th century in Alexandria. The letters are "the literary expression of a living popular tradition" that had been evolving for at least three centuries before the Quran was written. Several historical figures, both Muslim and Christian, searched for Alexander's Gate and several different identifications were made with actual walls. During the Middle
John Lucas (philosopher) John Lucas (philosopher) John Randolph Lucas (born 18 June 1929) is a British philosopher. John Lucas was educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied first mathematics, then Greats (Greek, Latin, Philosophy and Ancient History), obtaining first class honours, and taking the Oxford MA in 1954. He spent the 1957–58 academic year at Princeton University, studying mathematics and logic. For 36 years, until his 1996 retirement, he was a Fellow and Tutor of Merton College, Oxford, and he remains an emeritus member of the University Faculty of Philosophy. He is a Fellow of the British Academy. Lucas