Zoroaster parallels include the evident similarities between Amesha Spenta and the archangel Gabriel, and the mention of Thamud and the Iram of the Pillars in the Quran. These may also indicate the vast influence of the Achaemenid Empire on the development of either religion. The Sabaeans, who believed in free will coincident with Zoroastrians, are also mentioned in the Quran. Like the Greeks of classical antiquity, Islamic tradition understands Zoroaster to be the founding prophet of the Magians (via Aramaic, Arabic "Majus", collective "Majusya"). The 11th-century Cordoban Ibn Hazm (Zahiri school) contends that "Kitabi" "of the Book" cannot apply in light
Medes of the Indo-Iranian word "arta-" (lit. "truth") which is familiar from both Avestan and Old Persian and also examples of theophoric names containing "Maždakku" and also the name "Ahura Mazdā". Scholars disagree whether these are indications of Zoroastrian religion amongst the Medes. Diakonoff believes that "Astyages and perhaps even Cyaxares had already embraced a religion derived from the teachings of Zoroaster" which was not identical with doctrine of Zarathustra and Mary Boyce believes that "the existence of the Magi in Media with their own traditions and forms of worship was an obstacle to Zoroastrian proselytizing there". Boyce wrote that the