IBN GABIROL, SHELOMOH (c. 1021–1058), known in Latin texts as Avicebron, Avencebrol, and Avicembron; Jewish poet and the first Jewish philosopher in Spain. Ibn Gabirol was born in Malaga, was raised in Saragossa, and died in Valencia. He is best known in the Jewish community as the author of secular, ethical, and liturgical poetry that reflects Jewish faith under the influence of both Neoplatonism and Ṣūfī poetry. His poems include Ha-ʿanaq, a 400-verse Hebrew grammar that he composed when he was twenty years old; Azharot, a rhymed enumeration of the 613 commandments of the Torah; and Keter malkhut (The Royal Crown), his most famous liturgical poem, which is a part of the liturgy for the Day of Atonement.

The Royal Crown contains four sections. The first two deal with names of God, the third presents Ibn Gabirol's cosmology, and the fourth is a confessional prayer...