The unique well-known work by the Spanish Arabo-Islamic philosopher Ibn Tufayl (d. 1185), the Living Son of the Watchful (Hayy ben Yaqzan), exerted a substantially limited influence over Medieval Jewish philosophy.
Also a more "mystical" work by Avicenna, Living Son of the Watchful (Hayy ibn Yaqzan), apparently inspired Abraham Ibn Ezra in writing his own work in Hebrew on the same subject, the Iggeret Hay ben Meqits (around 1150), as shown by Israel Levin (see Levin 1983).
In the Treatise of the Bird, a group of birds fly on a long journey in search of truth over nine mountain ranges, each a dangerous and a tempting resting place; in the second, the narrator, consulting Hayy, a sage, makes a cosmic journey from west to east, ending in a vision of God (Avicenna 1980).
Examples include the Hindu Ramayana and Mahabharata; Homer's Odyssey and Iliad; the first Arabic novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan; the Persian epic Shahnameh; the Sagas of Icelanders and the celebrated Tale of the Genji.
Builders say the shell of the Masjid Al Hayy' Mosque arose quickly but then work slowed.
Is Hayy the response to a literary challenge?
Avicenna wrote two allegories of this type, Risâlat at-tair (Treatise of the Bird) and Hayy ibn Yaqzân.
In fact, the influence of "Hayy ibn Yaqdhan" on Europe was so great it "could be considered one of the most important books that heralded the Scientific Revolution".
The idea of a tabula rasa development of the human mind was the topic of a novel Hayy ibn Yaqdhan by the Arabic Andalusian philosopher Ibn Tufail (1105 1185 CE, known as "Abubacer" or "Ebn Tophail" in the West).
Snippets of biblical verses are skillfully woven into Hayy, making the poem amenable to the Jewish reader and making it easier for the reader to answer the invitation if one is indeed extended to join the excursion under Hayy's guidance.
