Alexander the Great in the Quran into Arabic. The Greek work "Thesaurus Alexandri" was attributed to Hermes (the great messenger of the gods in Greek mythology) and similarly contained supposed letters from Aristotle addressed to Alexander. A more direct Arabic translation of the "Alexander romance," called "Sirat Al-Iskandar", was discovered in Constantinople, at the Hagia Sophia, and is dated to the 13th century. This version includes the letter from Alexander to his mother about his travels in India and at the end of the World. It also includes features which occur exclusively in the Syriac version. The Arabic legend also retains certain pagan elements of the
Alexander the Great in the Quran the Macedonian. He provides a vague justification, saying that the Dhul-Qarnayn mentioned in the Quran traveled to the east and the west achieving victories and so he must be Alexander: While a survey in the history we do not find anybody other than Macedonian Alexander, "therefore, the Dhul Qarnayn is the same Macedonian Alexander". Aristotelian Muslim philosophers, such as al-Kindi (801–873 AD), al-Farabi (872–950 AD), and Avicenna (980–1037 AD), enthusiastically embraced the concept of Dhul-Qarnayn being an ancient Greek king. They stylized Dhul-Qarnayn as a Greek philosopher king. Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328 AD) objected to the identification on the basis that