The hypothesis of a Greek original, then, must be abandoned, even though old Greek alchemical traditions are crystallised in the Early Recipes. The Greeks founded alchemy in remote times; their methods were transmitted through the Syrians and Egyptian Greeks to the Moslems; and a large number of their recipes had become common property long before the _Liber Ignium_ was written. But Greek science did not spread equally in all directions, at least to any appreciable extent. It spread to the south and east only, and the west owed its knowledge of alchemy to the Arabs who invaded Spain in 710 A.D. This fact may throw some light upon the Arabic words and allusions to be found in the tract. In a very old recipe, No. 9, we meet with the phrase, “the first fall of the autumnal rain “ (_primo autumnalis pluviae dilapsu_), which indicates the regular, periodic rains of the East, and is apparently the translation of خريف (kharif) = the autumnal rains. The beginning of these rains was an event of great importance to the Arabs. “Suivant Masudi,” says Baron de Sacy, “les Arabes nomment l’automne وسمي (_wasmy_), à cause des pluies qui tombent en cette saison, parceque la terre, étant alors très-sèche, et n’ayant pas été humectée depuis longtemps, la première pluie qui vient à tomber imprime sa marque sur la terre.... Il ajoute que les Arabes commencent l’année à l’équinoxe d’automne, parceque c’est l’époque où commence à tomber la pluie à laquelle ils doivent leur subsistance.”[149] _Alambicum_ is apparently the latinised form of the Spanish _alambique_, which is simply the Arabic الانبيق (_al-ambiq_)—whatever the derivation of the Arabic word may be.