﴿ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا بَلَغَ بَيْنَ ٱلسَّدَّيْنِ وَجَدَ مِن دُونِهِمَا قَوْمًۭا لَّا يَكَادُونَ يَفْقَهُونَ قَوْلًۭا ﴾

“[And he marched on] till, when he reached [a place] between the two mountain-barriers, he found beneath them a people who could scarcely understand a word [of his language].”

until when he reached between the two barriers read al-saddayn or al-suddayn here and likewise further below at verse 94 saddan or suddan — these were two mountains lying in the remote regions beyond the land of the Turks; Alexander sealed the breach between the two as will be described below — he found on this side of them that is in front of them a folk that could scarcely comprehend speech in other words they could only understand it after much agonising a variant reading for yafqahūna ‘comprehend’ has yufqihūna ‘be understood’.