[7] The Dutch explorer Ulrich Jasper Seetzen recorded hearing public recitations of the Sīrat al-Iskandar in Cairo in the early 19th century.
One of the distinguishing features of the narrative, as the long title suggests, is the prominence of al-Khiḍr as Alexander's companion in all his adventures, not just that to the Land of Darkness.
[6] Among the identifiable but uncited sources of the Sīrat are Firdawsī's Shāhnāma (for the Persian background) and the 9th-century Nihāyat al-arab (for Alexander's conversion to monotheism).
[9] In the Sīrat, Alexander is a son of Dārāb, a prince of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia, and Nāhīd, daughter of King Philip II of Macedon.
[10] After returning to Macedon, Alexander comes under the influence of the devil, Iblīs, until he is brought back to the right path by al-Khiḍr, who convinces him he has a divine mission: to convert the whole world to monotheism.
Alexander then constructs the famous wall confining Gog and Magog before setting out for the Land of Darkness to find the Water of Life.