The vase was long believed to have held the water Jesus turned into wine at the marriage at Cana. In the 1740s, it was considered to be from ancient Egypt. It is in fact a Muslim object from the 14th century, from the Alhambra palace in Granada. It came to Sweden as war booty from Prague in 1648 and was placed in the new library at Drottningholm in the 1740s, where the architect Carl Hårleman replaced a damaged part with a bronze dragon.