He cited it in his Tafsīr (1) with a broken chain, saying: “Bishr related to us, Yazīd related to us, Saʿīd related to us, from Qatādah, who said: It reached us that a man said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have seen the barrier of Gog and Magog.’ He replied, ‘Describe it for me.’ He said, ‘It is like a richly embroidered cloak, one band black and another red.’ He replied, ‘You have indeed seen it.’

It has also been reported that the caliph al-Wāthiq (2) dispatched envoys on his behalf, providing them with letters to the various kings so they might escort them from one realm to the next until they reached the barrier, ascertain its condition, and observe the manner in which Dhu’l-Qarnayn had built it. When they returned, they described it as possessing an enormous gate secured by locks, the entire structure being solid, towering, and extraordinarily lofty. They said that the remaining bricks of iron and the necessary tools were stored in a tower there, that guards belonging to the adjacent kings were still posted at the site, and that its location is in the eastern part of the earth, toward the north, in the north-eastern corner of the world.

It is further said that their territories are exceedingly vast, that they subsist on various means of livelihood—ploughing, farming, hunting on land and sea—and that they are peoples and creatures whose number is known only to the One who created them.

If it be asked: How can the verse, “They were unable to scale it, nor were they able to pierce it” (al-Kahf 18:97), be reconciled with the ḥadīth recorded by al-Bukhārī (3) and Muslim (4) from Zaynab bint Jahsh, Mother of the Believers, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ awoke with his face flushed and said, “There is no god but Allah! Woe to the Arabs for an evil that has drawn near. Today a breach has been opened in the rampart of Gog and Magog like this,” and he joined the tips of his fingers in a circle (5). I said, “O Messenger of Allah, will we be destroyed while the righteous are among us?” He replied, “Yes, when corruption becomes widespread.”

The two Ṣaḥīḥs (6) also narrate, through Wahīb, from Ibn Ṭāwūs, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Today a breach has been opened in the dam of Gog and Magog like this,” and he formed a circle with his thumb and forefinger.

The answer is that, according to those who hold that this is merely an allusion to the opening of the doors of evil and tribulation—a pure metaphor and illustrative example—there is no difficulty at all.