It was composed by ‘Umara ibn Zayd (also spelled Omâre Ebn-Zeyd) (767-815) between the late 8th to the early 9th century as a recension on the Syriac Alexander Legend.
[1] In the Qissat al-Iskandar, Alexander the Great is depicted as a civilizing hero and monotheist[4] that travels across the world, builds the Wall against Gog and Magog, searches for the Water of Life (Fountain of Youth), and encounters angels who give him a "wonder-stone" that both weighs more than any other stone but is also as light as dust.
[7] The text also contains uniquely Arabic and Islamic material, including an identification of the protagonist, Alexander, with the figure named Dhu al-Qarnayn whom appears in Surah Al-Kahf in the Quran.
On these journeys encountering many groups of people, God grants Alexander proficiency in all languages.
[6] The composition is found in one sixteenth-century (1504) manuscript spanning 80 folios (or 160 pages) and was written by the scribe ‘Ubayd Allah Muḥammad b.