So it is as if it were said: What did he say when he completed it? It was said: 'He said, This' referring to the dam, 'is a mercy from my Lord,' the Benefactor to me by enabling me to build it and preventing corruption by it. 'So when the promise of my Lord comes,' regarding the approach of the Hour, 'He will make it dust,' by His decree upon their ability to breach it and demolish it, and facilitating that for them. The expression with the indefinite noun in the reading of the congregation is for the purpose of exaggeration in its destruction, which is what the reading of the Kufans indicated with the elongation, prohibited from being declined.

And when this was an extraordinary matter, surpassing the norm, he explained it by saying: "And the promise of my Lord" which He promised regarding the emergence of Gog and Magog, their breach of the earth, and their corruption therein, then the Day of Resurrection will certainly occur. Therefore, he assisted in its destruction. And from Qatadah, it was said: "It was mentioned to us that a man - and in another narration: from a man of the people of Medina - said: O Messenger of Allah! I have seen the wall of Gog and Magog. He said: Describe it to me. He said: It is like a patterned cloth: one path is black and another path is red. And in another narration: one path is red made of iron and another path is black made of copper. And in another narration, he said: I reached a land where they only have iron which they work with." This was narrated by Al-Tabari, Ibn Abi 'Umar, Al-Tabarani in the Musnad of the Syrians, Ibn Mardawayh from him, and Al-Bazzar from another source through Abu Bakrah, may Allah be pleased with him. Our Sheikh Ibn Hajar mentioned this in his verification of the hadiths of Al-Kashaf, and in the hadith of the opening of the gate from the biography of the scholar Abu Al-Rabi' Ibn Salim Al-Kal'ei and his teacher Ibn Hubaysh - and he was the commander of those armies which included Abdur-Rahman Ibn Rabi'ah during the days of Umar, may Allah be pleased with him. The text is: And Matar Ibn Thalj Al-Tamimi said: I entered upon Abdur-Rahman Ibn Rabi'ah at the gate, and Shahbaraz was with him - meaning: he was the king of the gate from the direction of the people of Kisra. A man approached him with a pale complexion until he sat with Shahbaraz, and they conversed. Then Shahbaraz said to Abdur-Rahman: O prince! Do you know where this man came from? I sent him years ago towards the wall to see what its condition is and who is beyond it, and I provided him with a great amount of money, and I wrote to him to those who are near me and gifted him, and I asked him to write to those who are beyond him, and I provided him with a gift for every king between me and him until he reached the king whose wall is at the back of his land. He wrote to his governor over that land, and he came to him and sent with him his envoy and his eagle. He mentioned that he treated the envoy well. He said: So the envoy thanked me, and when we arrived, there were two mountains between them, a wall blocked until it rose over the two mountains after it leveled with them. And there was a trench before the wall, darker than the night due to its depth. I looked at that and contemplated it, then I went to leave, and the envoy said to me: Slow down! Is it enough for you that no king follows another king except that he approaches Allah, the Exalted, with the best of what he has from this world and throws it into that flame? He explained a piece of [meat] with him and threw it into that air, and the eagle swooped down upon it and said: If it catches it before it falls, then there is nothing; but if it does not catch it until it falls, then that is something. Then it came out to us with the meat in its claws, and there was a ruby in it, and it gave it to me. This is it. Shahbaraz took it from him, and it was red, and he handed it to Abdur-Rahman, who looked at it and then returned it to him. Shahbaraz said: This is better than this city - meaning the gate - and by Allah! You are more beloved to me than a queen from the people of Kisra, and if I were in their dominion and then news of her reached them, they would take her from me. And by Allah! Nothing will stand for you as long as you fulfill or your greater king fulfills. Then Abdur-Rahman turned to the Messenger and said: What is the condition of the barrier and what is its likeness? He said: This garment that is on this man, and he pointed to Matar Ibn Thalj, who was wearing a Yemeni cloak, its ground is red and its pattern is black, or its pattern is red and its ground is black. Matar said: The man has spoken the truth by Allah! He has fulfilled and seen. Abdur-Rahman said: Yes! And he described the quality of iron and brass and recited: "Bring me sheets of iron" [Al-Kahf: 96] to the end of the verse. And Abdur-Rahman said to Shahbaraz: How much was your gift? He said: The value of one hundred thousand in this land of mine, and three thousand [thousand] or more in those lands - ended. And it has become apparent that what they have insisted upon from the stories of the People of the Cave and Dhul-Qarnayn and what has been included between them is a rebuke to the Jews who commanded that - indicating [from the story of Musa, peace be upon him] the occurrence of the Hour, thus all of it is a greater obligation upon them if they accept it, and a clear exposure of their stubbornness if they leave it.