"Design for the Water Clock of the Peacocks", from the Kitab fi ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya (Book of the Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices) by Badi' al-Zaman b. al Razzaz al-Jazari

Al-Jazari, the author of this treatise on a variety of practical and fanciful mechanical devices, served at the Artuqid court in Diyar Bakr in the late eleventh to the early twelfth century. Some of the elements of the peacock clock, run by water, are shown in this illustration. In the completed device, the arch containing two peacocks would be surmounted by another containing a peahen that would turn from right to left in the course of a half hour, causing the peacocks to whistle.

Credit: Rogers Fund, 1955