“They will ask thee of Ẕūʾl-qarnain. Say: I will recite to you an account of him. Verily We (God) established his power upon the earth, and We gave him a means to accomplish every end; so he followed his way, until when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it to set in a miry fount; and hard by he found a people. We (God) said, ‘O Ẕūʾl-qarnain! whether thou chastise or whether thou treat them generously’—‘As for him who is impious,’ he said, ‘we will chastise him;’ then shall he be taken back to his Lord, and He will chastise him with a grievous chastisement. But as to him who believeth, and doeth that which is right, he shall have a generous recompense, and We will lay on them our easy behests. Then followed he a route, until when he reached the rising of the sun, he found it to rise on a people to whom We had given no shelter from it. Thus it was. And We had a full knowledge of the forces that were with him. Then followed he a route, until he came between the two mountains, beneath which he found a people who scarce understood a language. They said, ‘O Ẕūʾl-qarnain! Verily Gog and Magog (i.e. the barbarous people of Eastern Asia) waste this land; shall we then pay thee tribute, so thou build a rampart between us and them?’ He said, ‘Better than your tribute is the might wherewith my Lord hath strengthened me; but help me strenuously, and I will set a barrier between you and them. Bring me blocks of iron’—until when it filled the space between the mountain sides; ‘Blow,’ said he, ‘upon it’—until when he had set it on fire he said, ‘Bring me molten brass that I may pour upon it.’ And Gog and Magog were not able to scale it, neither were they able to dig through it. ‘This,’ said he, ‘is a mercy from my Lord.’ ” (Qurʾān, [Sūrah xviii. 82–96].)
There are different opinions as to the reason of the surname, “two-horned.” Some think it was given him because he was King of the East and of the West, or because he had made expeditions to both those extreme parts of the earth; or else because he had two horns on his diadem, or two curls of hair, like horns, on his forehead. Perhaps there is some allusion to the he-goat of Daniel, although he is represented with but one horn. ([Dan. viii. 5].)
AZ-ZUMAR (الزمر). “Troops.” The title of the XXXIXth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in the 73rd verse of which the word occurs: “But those who fear God shall be driven to Paradise in troops.”
ZUNNĀR (زنار). In Persia, the belt worn by Christians and Jews. In India, the Brahmanical thread. A term used amongst the Ṣūfīs for sincerity in the path of religion. (Kashfu ʾl-Iṣt̤ilāḥāt, in loco.)
ẔŪ ʾN-NŪN (ذو النون). Lit. “Man of the fish.” A title given to the Prophet Jonah, in Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxi. 87]. [[JONAH].]
ẒURĀḤ (ضراح). Lit. “That which is very distant.” A term used by al-Baiẓāwī the commentator for the Baitu ʾl-Maʿmūr, or the model of the Kaʿbah, which is said to be in the fourth heaven, and is referred to in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah lii. 4]: “By the visited home (i.e. Baitu ʾl-Maʿmūr).” (See al-Baiẓāwī, in loco.)
ẔŪ ʾR-RAḤIM (ذو الرحم), pl. ẕawū ʾl-arḥām, or ūlū ʾl-arḥām. Lit. “A possessor of the womb.” A uterine relation. The plural form ūlū ʾl-arḥām occurs twice in the Qurʾān.
[Sūrah viii. 76]: “And they who have believed and have since fled their country, and fought at your side, these also are of you. Those who are united by ties of blood (ūlū ʾl-arḥām), are the nearest of kin to each other according to the Book of God. Verily God knoweth all things.”
[Sūrah xxxiii. 6]: “Nearer of kin to the faithful is the Prophet, than they are to their own selves. His wives are their mothers. According to the Book of God, they who are related by blood (ūlū ʾl-arḥām) are nearer the one to the other than other believers, and than those who have fled their country for the cause of God: but whatever kindness ye show to your kindred, shall be noted down in the Book.”