The story of Dhul-Qarnayn (in Arabic ذو القرنين, literally "The Two-Horned One", also transliterated as Zul-Qarnain or Zulqarnain), mentioned in the Quran, may be a reference to Alexander III of Macedon (356–323 BC), popularly known as Alexander the Great.[1] Some Western and traditional Muslim scholars identify Alexander the Great as Dhul-Qarnayn (Quran 18:83–94).[2][3] However, some early Muslim scholars believed it to be a reference to a pre-Islamic monarch from Persia or south Arabia,[4] with, according to Maududi, modern Muslim scholarship also leaning in favour of identifying him with Cyrus the Great.[5]