Al-Kahf is the 18th chapter (sūrah) of the Quran with 110 verses (āyāt). Regarding the timing and contextual background of the revelation, it is an earlier Meccan surah, which means it was revealed in Mecca, instead of Medina.
Surah Al-Kahf copied by Ottoman calligrapher Kadı Mahmud Efendi (d. 1575). Muhaqqaq, thuluth and reqa script. Sakıp Sabancı Museum
Central illumination of the Royal Terengganu Quran dated 1871. According to Malay tradition Al-Kahf verse 19 is accepted as the centre word of the Qur'an and Malay Qur'ans are often decorated in this place. Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia
Dhu al-Qarnayn (Iskandar) building a wall with the help of Jinn and Demons to keep away Gog and Magog. Miniature from a book of the Falnama made for the Safavid shah Tahmasp I (r. 1524–1576). Chester Beatty Library
Image: Illuminated folio. The Ruzbihan Qur'an (CBL Is 1558, f. 209a)
The Seven Sleepers, also known in Christendom as Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, and in Islam as Aṣḥāb al-Kahf, lit. Companions of the Cave, is a late antique Christian and later also Islamic legend. The Christian legend speaks about a group of youths who hid inside a cave outside the city of Ephesus around AD 250 to escape Roman persecutions of Christians and emerged many years later. The Qur'anic version of the story appears in Sura 18 (18:9–26).
Illustration from the Menologion of Basil II
Decius orders the walling in of the Seven sleepers From a 14th-century manuscript.
A 19th century German votive painting of the Seven Sleepers. The writing says Bittet für uns Ihr hl. sieben Schläfer (Pray for us, Holy Seven Sleepers).
Roman headstones misinterpreted as to show the Seven Sleepers, in a Church in Rotthof, Germany named after the legend
