Short answers, pulled from the story.
Zheng He entered the world in 1371 within a Muslim Hui family located in Kunyang, Kunming, Yunnan. His father held the title hajji and had made the pilgrimage to Mecca before dying in 1381 during fighting between Ming armies and Mongol forces.
During Chinese New Year on the 11th of February 1404, the Yongle Emperor conferred the surname Zheng upon Ma He because he had distinguished himself defending the city reservoir against imperial forces in 1399. Another reason for the name change was that the eunuch commander also distinguished himself during the campaign to capture the capital.
Zheng He departed from Suzhou on the 11th of July 1405 with a fleet of 317 ships holding almost 28,000 crewmen. The Ming government sponsored seven naval expeditions between 1405 and 1433 under the commission of the Yongle Emperor and the succeeding Xuande Emperor.
One theory states Admiral Zheng He died in 1433 during or shortly after his seventh voyage while another possibility is that Zheng He continued serving as defender of Nanjing until dying in 1435. His body was buried at sea off the Malabar Coast near Calicut in western India.
A tomb was built for Zheng He at the southern slope of Cattle Head Hill in Nanjing where the original grave serves as a cenotaph containing clothes and headgear rather than remains. In 1985, the tomb was rebuilt following a Muslim style with sword and other personal possessions interred in a Muslim tomb inscribed in Arabic.