Solomon ben Judah ibn Gabirol was first mentioned by Sāʿd the Qadi of Toledo (c. 1029–1070), who claimed that ibn Gabirol lived in Saragossa, was a keen student of philosophy, especially logic, and died sometime around 1058 CE, after he had passed the age of thirty. The Andalusian Jewish poet Moses ibn Ezra (c. 1060–1139) claimed that ibn Gabirol was born in Malaga and reared in Saragossa and spent a short but fruitful life in the service of philosophy and poetry. The Jewish philosopher Abraham ibn Daud (c. 1110–1180) said that ibn Gabirol died in 1070, but 1058 is more generally accepted.

The tone of some of Ibn Gabirol's secular songs, gloomy and bitter, is sometimes considered an indication of his unhappy lot—orphaned at an early age, poor, and ostracized by many of his contemporaries because of his...