"En medio del enclaustro, lugar tan acabado, / sediá un rico árbol en medio levantado": contextos y funciones ecfrásticas del árbol autómata en el Libro de Alexandre.

One of the most interesting passages in El Libro de Alexandre, a text that updates for the Middle Ages the life of Alexander the Great and adds certain fantastic aspects, is, with no doubt, the finding of Poro's Palace, located in India. In this episode, the Macedonian king finds a tree made of gold that is an automat, it means a kind of robot that moves itself by certain physical forces. In this paper, the author tries to get deeper in this passage and reveals its intra and extratextual functions, as well as its intertextual and extratextual relationship, concerning other literary works and historical aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]