Moses ben Isaac ibn al-Taqāna (Abū ʾl-Ḥasan Mūsā ibn al-Taqāna), surnamed al-Tayyāh (Ar. the one who lost his way; the perplexed), was a contemporary of Solomon ibn Gabirol, and like Ibn Gabirol lived in Saragossa. He seems to have been close to Jonah ibn Janāḥ, who also settled in Saragossa, and to have taken the latter’s side in his grammatical dispute with the celebrated poet and courtier Samuel ibn Naghrella ha-Nagid.

In his Kitāb al-Muḥāḍara wa ʾl-Mudhākara, Moses ibn Ezra (d. ca. 1135) indicates that Ibn al-Taqāna was a well-educated member of a noble family known fo…