  Ibn Ezra notes (gloss to Eccelsiastes 7:9; see below) that one must read “many books” in order to master psychology, but he does not name a single one of them; this observation as well holds throughout his opus, where, to the best of my knowledge, not a single textbook on psychology, metaphysics, or logic is ever mentioned by name. However, formal study of scientific texts was only one means of access to the philosophy of the day. By the late eleventh century Andalusian Jewry had drunk deeply from the fountain of Greco-Arabic science, and Ibn Ezra could certainly have achieved some familiarity with psychology and other fields without having undergone any formal course of study. As we shall see, Ibn Ezra certainly read Ibn Sînâ’s philosophical allegory, Hayy bin Yaqzân.  In general, it would seem that he was attracted to short, tantalizing and cryptic expositions, rather than lengthy, discursive prose.