In the two Ṣaḥīḥs there is also the report of Zaynab bint Jahsh: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) slept in my house, then awoke with his face flushed and said, ‘There is no god but Allah! Woe to the Arabs for a calamity that has drawn near. Today an opening the size of this has been made in the barrier of Gog and Magog,’” and he formed a circle with his thumb and forefinger.
As for their appearance, Imam Ibn Kathīr (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “They are human beings who resemble their kinsfolk among the Turks—stocky, Mongol-like, with small eyes, flat noses, and reddish-blond hair, each according to his own shape and complexion. Whoever claims that among them are giants as tall as the highest date-palms, or pygmies no bigger than a trifle, or people with two ears, one used as a cloak and the other as a mattress, has ventured into pure conjecture without any proof.”
Concerning the harm and corruption they will cause on earth and how they will meet their end, this is made clear in the ḥadith recorded by Imam Aḥmad from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say, “Gog and Magog will be opened up and will surge against the people, as Allah the Exalted says: ‘and they will swarm down from every slope’ ⦗1⦘. They will overwhelm mankind, and people will retreat before them into their towns and fortresses, taking their livestock with them. They will drink up the waters of the earth, so that when some of them pass by a river they drink everything in it and leave it dry, and those who come after them will say, ‘There was once water here!’ When none remain save those sheltered in a fortress or a city, one of them will say, ‘We have finished with the inhabitants of the earth; now there remain the inhabitants of heaven.’
“Then one of them will brandish his spear and hurl it toward the sky, and it will return to him stained with blood—as a trial and a temptation. While they are in that state, Allah will send a worm into their necks, like the grubs that grow in the necks of locusts, and by morning they will all be dead with no sound from them. The Muslims will then say, ‘Is there anyone who will sell his life for us and find out what has happened to this enemy?’ A man will volunteer, seeking Allah’s reward, having resolved that…"