Alexander the Great was well known in Rus', and if we are to believe the texts of Mavro Orbini's "The Kingdom of the Slavs", "The Tale of Slovene and Rus and the City of Slovensk" and Nizami Ganjavi's "Iskandar-nama", Alexander the Great knew Rus' too and

These legendary reports find reflection in Old Russian architecture. The subject of the Ascension of Alexander the Great is widely known. One example is the relief of Alexander the Great's ascension, in which he holds two sceptres and is borne aloft by griffins, on the façade of the twelfth-century Cathedral of Saint Demetrius in Vladimir.

The relief of Alexander the Great's flight is set in a well-lit niche on the southern façade of the Cathedral of Saint Demetrius. Similar images are found in the decoration of other churches of pre-Mongol Rus', for instance the Cathedral of Saint George in Yuryev-Polsky.

At its root lies the legend of how Alexander the Great tamed two enormous white birds, put a wooden yoke on their necks, fastened a leather basket to it and, holding spears seven cubits long with horse liver skewered on them, made the birds take off and rose into the sky with them.