Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Alembic

Alembic (ȧ*lem"bik) , noun

[French alambic (compare Sp. alambique), Arabic al-anbīq, from Greek 'a`mbix cup, cap of a still. The cap or head was the alembic proper. Compare Limbec.]

Used also metaphorically.

The alembic of a great poet's imagination. Brimley.

An apparatus formerly used in distillation, usually made of glass or metal. It has mostly given place to the retort and worm still.
The alembic of a great poet's imagination. — Brimley