The grammatical work called Agron, a sort of dictionary, is now lost, as are also the Kutub al-Lugltah and perhaps other treatises on Hebrew grammar. The explanation of the 7o (really 90) hapaxlegomena in the Bible is still extant, and a poem on the number of letters in the Bible.
On Talmudic subjects again little is preserved beyond the Kiteib al-Illawarith, which was published as vol. ix. of the Oeuvres com pletes, together with the short treatise in Hebrew on the 13 Mid dath or canons of exegesis of R. Ishmael and some Responsa mostly in Hebrew. The translation of the Mishna, the introduction to the Talmud and other works of the kind are known only by repute.
Of the Siddur or arrangement of the liturgy by Saadia, a large part exists in a single manuscript at Oxford, and several fragments have been recovered from the Cairo Geniza. Numerous other liturgical poems, or parts of them, have been obtained from the same source, and several have been published in periodicals. His Azharoth, a poetical enumeration of the 613 precepts, in Hebrew, is included in vol. ix. of the Oeuvres completes.
'Oeuvres completes de R. Saadia, ed. by J. Derenbourg (Paris, 1893 ff.).
His philosophical works are (I) a commentary on the Sefer Ye;ire, a mystical treatise ascribed to the patriarch Abraham, which, as the foundation of the Kabbala, had great influence on Jewish thought, and was the subject of numerous commentaries; (2) the Kiteib al-Ameincit wtal-Ittiqeidat (Book of Beliefs and Convictions), written in 933, called, in the Hebrew translation by Judah ibn Tibbon, EmiinOth Its system is based on reason in conjunction with revelation, the two being not opposed, but mutually complementary. It is thus concerned, as the title
implies, with the rational foundation of the faith, and deals with creation, the nature of God, revelation, free will, the soul, the future life and the doctrine of the Messiah. It shows a thorough knowledge of Aristotle, on whom much of the argument is based, and incidentally refutes the views of Christians, Muslims, Brah mans and sceptics such as Hivi. From its nature, however, the work, although of great interest and value, never had the same wider influence as that of Ibn Gabirol (q.v.). The Arabic text was published by S. Landauer (Leiden, i3So), the Hebrew version at Constantinople in 1562 and frequently since.