Ibn Gabirol, Solomon ben Judah (c. 1020-c. 1057)

Poet and philosopher, born in Moorish Spain. As a poet, he ranks with the greatest medieval writers, and some of his shorter religious hymns have been incorporated into the Jewish liturgy. His main philosophical work, originally written in Arabic, is fully preserved only in the Latin translation, Fons Vitae.

Fons Vitae is neo-Platonic in thought, yet also contains elements of Aristotle and Philo Judaeus. It influenced Duns Scotus, the Franciscan order, the philosophers Baruch Spinoza and Arthur Schopenhauer, and (in a Hebrew translation) the Kabbalah.