Quran says the Sun Sets in a Muddy Spring
In Quran 18:86, Dhul Qarnayn reached (balagha) the setting place of the sun, found (wajada) the sun setting in a muddy spring, and found (wajada) a community near it. Scholars trace this story to legends about Alexander the Great.
1. Quran Says the Sun Sets in a Muddy Spring
Quran 18:86 in Arabic word for word creates two independent problems:
- First, Dhul Qarnayn reached (balagha) a location: the setting place of the sun (maghriba l-shamsi).
- There, he found (wajada) the sun setting in a muddy spring (ʿaynin ḥami-atin). And he found (wajada) a community near it.
Quran 18:86 Arabic Word for Word:
https://corpus.quran.com/wordbyword.jsp?chapter=18&verse=86
2. Tafsir al-Tabari (one of the earliest and most trusted exegesis) on Quran 18:86
Tafsir al-Tabari preserves the debate between Muhammad's Companion Ibn Abbas and the salaf over whether the spring where the sun sets is muddy or hot. And Ibn Abbas, who Muhammad prayed for to get the correct interpretation of the book (Sunan Ibn Majah 166), said that the sun sets in a muddy spring. Tabari says both readings are correct because the sun could set in a spring that is both hot and muddy**:**
Allah says: (Until, when Dhul-Qarnayn reached the setting of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring.) The readers differed on how to read this. Some of the readers of Madina and Basra read it as (in a muddy spring), meaning that the sun sets in a spring that contains mud. While a group of the readers of Medina and the majority of the people of Kufa read it as, (in a warm spring) meaning that the sun sets in a spring of warm water.
Al-Husayn b. Al-Junayd ← Sayd b. Salamah ← Ismail b. Aliyah ← Uthman b. Hadir: I heard Abdullah b. Abbas said: Muawiyah recited this verse, and he said (warm spring) and Ibn Abbas said: it is (muddy spring). He said: So they sent to Ka'b Al-Ahbar and asked him. Ka'b said: As for the sun, it disappears in 'Thatin', which matched what Ibn Abbas said, and the word tha'at means "mud".
And in my (Tabari's) mind the correct opinion is to say that they are both popular readings in the land, and each one has a correctness about it and an understandable meaning, and neither contradicts the other, for it is possible that the sun sets in a hot spring that has mud and sludge, so a reader who uses "hot spring" is describing its temperature, and the reader who uses "muddy spring" is describing that it has mud and sludge. Both versions have been narrated to us.
Muhammad b. Al-Muthanna ← Yazid b. Harun ← The common people ← A freed slave of Abdullah b. Amr ← Abdullah: "The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, looked at the sun when it set, and said: 'In the blazing fire of Allah, in the blazing fire of Allah: If it wasn't for Allah's command, the sun would burn all those who are on earth.'"
Tafsir al-Tabari on Quran 18:86
3. Hadith
Muhammad directly says in a hadith, considered authentic in chain (Al-Albani), that the sun sets in a spring:
"I was sitting behind the Messenger of Allah who was riding a donkey while the sun was setting.
He asked: Do you know where this sets?
I replied: Allah and his Apostle know best.
He said: It sets in a spring of warm water (Hamiyah)."
Sunan Abu Dawud 4002
4. Pre-Islamic Poem
A poem in Ibn Ishaq's earliest biography of Muhammad, attributed to the pre-Islamic king Tubba, describes this as well:
"He saw where the sun sinks from view
In a pool of mud and fetid slime"
Ibn Ishaq, Sirat Rasul Allah, p. 12
5. Syriac Alexander Legend
In the Quran, the full Dhul Qarnayn story begins: “They will ask thee [Muhammad] of Dhu'l-Qarneyn.” (the story was circulating at the time).
In it, he traveled until he reached (balagha) the setting place of the sun and found (wajada) the sun setting in a muddy spring, and found (wajada) a community near it. Then he reached (balagha) the rising place of the sun where people had no shelter from it. Then he followed another path until he reached (balagha) a place between two mountains, where he found (wajada) a people asking for help against Gog and Magog. He builds an iron and copper wall between the cliffs to seal them off until doomsday.
Quran 18:83-99.
Historians trace this story and the Quranic character Dhul Qarnayn to a legend about Alexander the Great circulating around Muhammad's time, the Syriac Alexander Legend, which also says this:
"So the whole camp mounted, and Alexander and his troops went up between the fetid sea and the bright sea to the place where the sun enters the window of heaven; for the sun is the servant of the Lord, and neither by night nor by day does he cease from his travelling."
Budge, Syriac Alexander Legend, p. 148
"Thus, quite strikingly, almost every element of this short Qur'anic tale finds a more explicit and detailed counterpart in the Syriac Alexander Legend."
Van Bladel, p. 181
See more on this in my post here:
Responses and Why They Don't Work
- "By saying he reached (balagha) the setting place of the sun, the Quran just means he reached west."
- West is a direction, not a destination. If the sun sets in the west from everywhere on Earth, how can you reach (balagha) the setting place of the sun?
- "It was just perspective - it appeared to him"
- It's narrated in third person and there is no "appeared" in the Arabic. It says when he reached (balagha) the setting place of the sun, he found (wajada) the setting in a muddy spring just like he found (wajada) a real community near it. And it's clear all the earliest tafsirs (exegesis of Quran) took it literally until it became too embarrassing. Also, springs are small and don't have horizons like oceans. You look down at a spring and can see its edges. The sun can't appear to set into a spring. And even if this is granted, how did he first reach (balagha) the setting place of the sun in the first place?
I have posted this argument and other arguments with citations here:
https://islamsproblems.com/quran-sun-sets-in-muddy-spring/
Posted Jun 15, 2026, 1:02 PM UTC