This poem is commonly attributed to the sixteenth century Sephardic kabbalist, Rabbi Elazar ben Moshe Azikri (1533-1600), who first published it in Sefer Charedim (published in Venice 1601), but Azikri did not claim authorship of it and there have been other suggested authors (e.g. Judah Halevi, or Israel Nagara). "The Hebrew Manuscripts at Cambridge University Libraries" by Stefan C. Reif (1997, page 93) refers to an appearance of Yedid Nefesh in the "Commentary On the Book of Numbers" by Samuel ben David ben Solomon, a manuscript dated to about 1438—long before Azikri's birth. Azikri's philosophy centred around the intense love one must feel for God, a theme that is evident in this "piyyut" (see references). The first letters of each of the four verses make up the four letter name of God, known in English as the "tetragrammaton".