An alembic or still-head (lower illustration) and a metal alembic with boiling vessel, illustrated in the margins of a copy of Shudhur al-dhahab, a commentary by Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari on an alchemical-allegorical set of poems by his teacher Ibn Arfa' Ra's (died 1197). The copy was completed in Jumada I 1123 (March-April 1712) by the copyist Muhammad Sadiq ibn Mustafa al-Antaki al-Istanbuli al-Hanafi. An alembic is an alchemical still consisting of two vessels connected by a tube.