The most Beautiful Pomegranate/Granada: A Riddle by Yehudah ha-Levi

Abstract

Among other poems, Yehudah ha-Levi dedicates to his friends Yehudah ibn Gayyat a curious riddle. The subject, or rather, the enigma is the pomegranate (rimmon) which the poet challenges him to discover in its verses. This fruit is not an unusual motif for a riddle, but in this case, the poetic game which the pomegranate offers seems to have multiplied as its receiver is a friend who is an inhabitant of the city of the same name: Rimmon (Granada). In the riddle under consideration, not only must one guess that a pomegranate is the solution to the enigma but also deduce that pomegranate/Granada is  being described.