I've always had doubts about how true it is - he has always needed the East as an ally as the West has been closed of to him, I always assumed he was doing it for that reason. Maby I'm just to much of a cynic?
I think he is religious, though. I mean, he could have pretended to be a religious leader without living in a tent.
Magnus Alexander corpore parvus erat
Dissenting voice of wotmania
Frightfully stubborn pacifist
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent