This kind of internal copying is done via Raphael's .clone(), which is as simple as this:
var newElem = oldElem.clone();
Element.clone()
works on elements including paths, images, rects, circles... but not sets.
Here's a simple demo - play around with splicing as desired.
http://jsbin.com/ufayuw/1/edit
If you want the clone to be hidden until it is needed, hide it with .hide()