YAJUJ AND MAJUJ

in Islamic eschatology, two hostile forces who will ravage the Earth before the end of the world. The Qur'an relates that a certain people terrorized by Yajuj and Majuj induced Alexander the Great to construct a great wall between them. Yajuj and Majuj, thus trapped between two mountains until the last days of the world, dig under the wall every night trying to escape, only to find each morning that the wall has been restored by God (Allah). Tradition provides several descriptions of Yajuj and Majuj, who are Muslim counterparts of the biblical Gog and Magog. Some are tall as cedars, and others wide as they are tall; one variety is completely covered with ears. They will appear in large numbers in the northeast of the ancient world as portents of the end, then proceed south toward Israel, drinking up the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers or the Sea of Galilee and killing everyone along the way. When there are no more human targets left for their arrows, Yajuj and Majuj will shoot at the sky, but God will either fill their ears and noses and throats with worms and destroy them in a single night or send a flock of birds to drown them in the sea.