Popular tradition links his departure from Yemen with a miracle that occurred after a rich Muslim woman tried to seduce him. In Bet El he worked as a servant and hid his learning from others; when his knowledge of Kabbalah was accidentally discovered, he became a member of the kabbalistic circle. According to legend, the prophet Elijah appeared to him, and he is understood by the major Kabbalists as being himself the Gilgul of the Arizal. His grandson, Solomon Moses Hai Gagin Sharabi, wrote a poem of praise on his mastery of the Etz Hayyim and Shemonah She'arim of Hayyim Vital. Members of Bet El continue to prostrate themselves on his grave on the Mount of Olives on the anniversary of his death.