glory of poetry (x). Another one of Ibn Ezra's most famous works is the "Maḳāla bi 'l-Ḥadīḳa fī maʿnāal-mad̲j̲āz wa 'l-ḥaḳīḳa." The main intent of this work is to explain to Hebrew poets how they should compose their poems, based on the structure of Arabic poems. Ibn Ezra's "Hadika" also primarily addresses the metaphorical interpretation of God and how God is such a powerful and divine being that God can not be interpreted through the human mind but simply through the use of metaphor. This was considered to be one of the most important ideas in Jewish ideology in medieval times. Philosophy Ibn Ezra's philosophical contributions were considered only minor when compared to his contributions to poetry and literature. One piece of literature that highlights Ibn Ezra's philosophical viewpoints was the "Al-Maqāla bi al-Ḥadīqa fi Maʿnā al-Majāz wa al-Ḥaqīqa." This was a work in Arabic. Much of it reiterated his poetic beliefs about the relationship between man and God and the unknowability of God. Ibn Ezra's philosophy had a neoplatonic orientation with regard to the relationship between God and man. Ibn Ezra focuses on man as a microcosm so that God is considered a self-subsistent, unitary being who preceded creation, which therefore ultimately led to man's creation being perfect. He states that God's perfection cannot be comprehended by the human mind and the finite and imperfect human mind cannot know the infinite and perfect mind of God. Ibn Ezra's philosophy also addresses intellect, declaring that the active intellect was God's first creation. Ibn Ezra claims that the intellect is a pure substance from which all things are inherently created. Along with the active intellect is another form Ibn Ezra describes as the passive intellect. This form of intellect is considered to be above the active intellect and superior to the rational soul. Sacred poems Many of Ibn Ezra's 220 sacred compositions are found in the mahzor, the traditional Jewish prayerbook for the High Holy Days: Rosh Hashanah, "the Jewish New Year", and Yom Kippur, "Day of Atonement". These penitential poems, or selichot, earned him the name HaSallach.These poems invite man to look within himself; they depict the vanity of worldly glory, the disillusion which must be experienced at last by the pleasure-seeker, and the inevitability of divine judgment. A skillfully elaborate piece of work is the Avodah, the introduction to which is a part of the Portuguese Mahzor. Unlike his