The alchemist Abu l-Hasan ?Ali b. Musa al-Ansari al-Andalusi, known as Ibn Arfa? Ra?s (fl. 6th/12th century) is the author of Shudhur al-dhahab (The Splinters of Gold), one of the most famous poetry collections of Arabic alchemy, which has been the object of no less than thirteen commentaries. The numerous manuscripts of Shudhur al-dhahab and its commentaries have been read and copied for more than 700 years in various parts of the Islamicate world, from Morocco to India.
The very first commentary on Shudhur al-dhahab was composed by the author Ibn Arfa? Ra?s himself. It was transmitted by his disciple Abu l-Qasim Muhammad b. ?Abd Allah al-Ansari under the title Kitab Hall mushkilat al-Shudhur (The Unraveling of the Difficulties of 'The Splinters') and is extant in at least 31 manuscripts, of which 27 have been taken into account for this critical edition. This book provides the first edition of Kitab Hall mushkilat al-Shudhur, along with an Arabic-English glossary of its alchemical terminology.
