ʿAbbās b. Firnās, Abū al-Qāsim (d. 274/887), was an Andalusian poet, man of letters, musician, inventor and engineer. He also had some knowledge of astronomy, philosophy and alchemy (al-Zubaydī, 269; Ibn Ḥayyān, 279; Ibn Saʿīd, 1/333). Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih (d. 328/940) thought it sufficient to simply quote some of his verses (4/495–496), without giving any further explanation as to who he was. Most of the limited, and sometimes contradictory, information available on Ibn Firnās was initially put together by Ibn Saʿīd (d. 685/1286) in his al-Mughrib.

Ibn Firnās was of Berber origin fro…