Alexander’s Adventures Traveling to Africa

[Alexander] said to [the sages], “I need to go [conquer] the country of Africa.” They said to him, “You cannot go, because the mountains of darkness block the way.” He said to them, “I must go, and that is why I need to ask you how I should proceed.” They said to him, “Bring Libyan donkeys that can travel in the dark and bring coils of rope and tie them on the side [of the road], so that when you go along the way you can hold them and reach your place.” He did so, until he arrived at a certain walled city [populated] entirely by women. He wanted to fight them. [The women] said to him, “If you kill us, [people] will say he kills women; if we kill you, [people] will say the king was killed by women.” He said to them, “Bring me bread.” They brought him golden bread on a golden table. He said to them, “Do people eat bread [made of] gold?” They said to him, “If you desire bread, is it because you do not have bread to eat in your place that you [needed to] come here?” When [Alexander] left, he wrote on the gate of the walled city, “I, Alexander the Macedonian, was a fool until I came to the African country of women and I received advice from them.”

When he left, he sat down at a certain spring and ate bread. He had some salted fish. While they were rinsing off [the fish in the spring water], a [pleasant] odor came over them. He said, “Learn from this that this spring comes from the garden of Eden!” Some say that he took fresh water [to wash] his face and some say he went upstream entirely until he came to the entrance of the garden of Eden. He shouted, “Open the gate for me!” They said to him, “This is the gateway of the Lord (Psalm 118:20).” He said to them, “I am also a king and I am extremely important, so give me something!” They gave him an eyeball. He weighed it against all of his gold and silver, but it was unequal. [Alexander] said to the rabbis, “How is this?” They said, “The eyeball of a human being is never satiated.” He said to them, “How is this so?” They took clumps of earth and covered [the eye], and immediately it sank, as it is written: The netherworld and destruction are never satiated; [so the eyes of man are never satiated] (Proverbs 27:20).