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ḥattā ʾidhā balagha maghriba sh-shamsi wajadahā taghrubu fī ʿaynin ḥamiʾatin wa-wajada ʿindahā qawman qulnā yā-dhā l-qarnayni ʾimmā ʾan tuʿadhdhiba wa-ʾimmā ʾan tattakhidha fīhim ḥusnan
When he reached the place where the sun sets, he found it setting over a warm sea, and by it he found a people. We said, ‘O Dhul Qarnayn! You will either punish them, or treat them with kindness.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-Kahf – Verse 86
86. “Until when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring and he found by it a people. We said: ‘O’ Zul-Qarnayn! Either you chastise them or you take a way of kindness among them?”
In this holy verse, the Qur’an implies that Zul-Qarnayn went on his journey as far as the end of the habitable places where there was not any more flourished land after that. This does not mean that he reached the site of setting the sun, because none reaches there. In that place, he felt that the sun was setting in a muddy and dark spring, although, in fact, it was hiding behind that spring, since the sun does not set in water, it is in the sky. If a person is in the seashore or on the sea when the sun is setting, he feels that the sun is setting in the water of the sea, but neither of them is true.
The purpose of the Arabic phrase /‘aynin hami’ah/ is ‘a muddy spring’ while the purpose of the Qur’anic phrase /‘aynin hamiyah/ is ‘a spring of hot water’. However, the Qur’anic term /hami’ah/ is used for ‘some bad smelling mud’ and ‘Some hot mud’. Ka‘b has said that he recited in the Turah that the sun was setting in the mud and water. The verse says:
This part of the holy verse indicates that the people whom Zul-Qarnayn saw by that spring were heathens, therefore the Lord orders him to kill them, or to take them captives and train them.