Career
Dissatisfied with the contentions of the rationalists, he turned to Cabala in the hope of cultivating prophetic powers and attaining communion with God. He was severely ascetic, believing that contact with the Divine might be achieved by constant prayer. He introduced the mysticism of the Hebrew letters and established the technique, known as Gematria, by which new meanings might be derived from the very letters of Scripture by giving letters a numerical value. Believing himself to be a prophet and a messiah, he lectured on Cabala in the various cities of Spain and Italy, made an attempt to convert Pope Nicholas III to Judaism, and was thrown into prison in 1281. Later he was driven out of Sicily and settled on the island of Comino. He died in Barcelona about the year 1291. Among Abulafia's notable works are Sefer ha-Ot (1285-1288) ("The Book of the Sign") and Imre Shefer (1291) ("Words of Beauty").