To understand these visions, the interpreters and religious leaders in his circle send him to Jerusalem to meet a mysterious figure named Moses al-Khidr.
During his travels, he also experiences epic journeys and quests, such as constructing a wall against the barbarian tribes Gog and Magog or meeting Israfil, the angel of death.
Following Alexander, South Arabian tradition identified him as Dhu al-Qarnayn, a character in the Quran appearing in Surah Al-Kahf.
[2] The primary source for the life of Sa'b Dhu Marathid is Ibn Hisham (d. 833) in his Book of Crowns on the Kings of Himyar.
One chapter of this work is dedicated to this figure, and it presently exists in two editions: one was published in Hyderabad in 1347 AH (1928 AD) in a larger volume also containing the Akhbar 'Ubayd bin Shari'a al-Jurhami (The Histories of 'Ubayd bin Shari'a al-Jurhami), and a second is available from Lidzbarski in his German volume Zu den arabischen Alexandergeschichten.
[4][3] The other important sources for traditions about Sa'b Dhu Marathid include al-Hamdani (d. 947) in his encyclopedia Kitab al-Iklīl (known as The Antiquities of South Arabia in English translation), and Nashwan al-Himyari (d. 1178) in his Khulāṣa (short for the Khulāṣat al-sīra al-jāmiʾa li-ʿajāʾib akhbār al-mulūk al-tabābiʿa, or "Quintessence of the comprehensive history concerning the wondrous reports of the Tubbaʿ kings").
[9] Others think that Ibn Hisham's biography of Sa'b primarily reflects the weaving of traditions found in the Syriac Alexander Legend and the Quran.
[11] Examples include his search for the Fountain of Life, his defeat of Gog and Magog, his construction of a wall, and his reign over the Earth from East to West.
[12] Ibn Hisham's account which serves to praise the history of South Arabia begins by describing the creation and the prophetic genealogy.
Instead of interpreting his dreams, they send him to a prophet and a descendant of Abraham known as Moses al-Khidr (whose full name is given as: Mūsā al-Khiḍr b. Khiḍrūn b.
It was said that Sa'b had built a wall against Gog and Magog, met with Israfil, an angel of death, and the story of him in the Land of Rubies.
Dhū ʾl-Qarnayn continued to approach the sun and follow its light until he reached a land decorated with the stars of the sky and he walked over them.
The true sababs came to Dhū ʾl-Qarnayn who told al-Khiḍr about them.For Ibn Hisham, the description of the life of Sa'b bears various similarities to his understanding of the life of Muhammad, including disturbing and frightening experiences with the divine alienating them from their contemporaries, leading them to interact with someone associated previously with monotheism to enable the validation of their visions.
Following a detailed analysis, Nagel instead defines the milieu in which this version emerged as that of South Arabians in early eighth-century Egypt,[21] and observes that Southern Arabs were one of two factions who vied for power in the Umayyad empire.
'Later, Himyari, who believed that non-Arabs were responsible for the Alexandrian identification,[23] would elaborate on Ibn Hisham's account by outlining the full genealogy[6]:Kaʾb al-Aḥbār was asked about dhū l-qarnayn, and he said: 'We hold it to be correct from the knowledge of our [Jewish] religious authorities (aḥbār) and our ancestors that he was from Ḥimyar and that he was al-Ṣaʿb b. dhī Marāthid.
ʿĪṣ b. Isḥāq b. Ibrāhīm [Abraham], the friend of God, and his men saw ʿĪsā b. Maryam [Jesus, son of Mary], among them Galenos, Aristoteles and Daniel.
'To further support his contention that the reader should identify Dhu al-Qarnayn with the Himyarite king as opposed to Alexander the Great, he claims that the pre-Islamic poet Imru' al-Qais wrote about Sa'b:[23]And he built a barrier where the sun rises against Gog and Magog among the mountains.Traditions identifying Dhu al-Qarnayn with a South Arabian king have also been attributed to Hassan ibn Thabit, a poet of the time of Muhammad.