History and Later Influence

Ophiel reached English readers through Robert Turner's 1655 translation of the Arbatel de magia veterum, first printed in Latin at Basel in 1575 and issued by Turner together with his own edition of the pseudo Agrippa Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy. His association with rapid alchemical transformation and readily granted familiars gave him a distinct profile among the seven Olympic spirits in later popular writing on the Arbatel, sometimes discussed specifically in connection with practical alchemy rather than the more general offices of dignity, wealth or beauty the Arbatel gives several of the other spirits.

As with the rest of the Arbatel's seven, this atlas keeps Ophiel's system distinct from John Dee's Heptarchia Mystica, recorded within a decade of the Arbatel's first printing, and from the later Ars Goetia, since the three traditions have independent manuscript and print histories despite emerging from the same general period of European ceremonial magic. Phul's narrower, medically framed offices, healing dropsy and granting visible water spirits, have made him less frequently cited in popular summaries of the Arbatel than Och or Bethor, whose promises of wealth and dignity draw more attention in general audience writing about the text.