The author of the composition is not known nor is the precise place or time of his life. What are clear are the sources he utilized and we can assume that the treatise was written in the second half of the seventeenth century.

In the four introductions to the work, he cites from the Zohar, Sha'arei 'Orah, the commentary on the sefirot written in the thirteenth century by R. Joseph Gikatilla, Ma'arekhet ha-Elokhut. written in the fourteenth century by an anonymous student of R. Solomon ibn Adret, Pardes Rimmonim, the sixteenth century kabbalistic classic by R. Moses Cordovero, and Hesed Avraham, written in the seventeenth century by R. Abraham Azulai. In other parts of the work, the author refers to these kabbalistic sources as well, citing most frequently R. Gikatilla's Sha 'arei 'Orah. In addition, the author cites from Sefer ha-Mishkal by the thirteenth century Spanish kabbalist, R. Moses de Leon (fol. 26b). Me'ah She'arim, attributed to the fourteenth century Italian kabbalist, R. Menahem Recanati (fol. 33a). Me'orot Natan, cited as M'eorei 'Or by the seventeenth century kabbalist, R. Meir Poppers (fols. 94a, 120a, 135a). There are also occasional references to opinions of the "kabbalists"." ha-mequbbalim (fols. 42a, 430. 139b) or the "masters of the kabbalah", ba'alei ha-mequbbalim (fol. 84a) with no other specific information. Traditions are also cited in the name of the sixteenth-century kabbalistic master, R. Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, the Ari z'l (fols. l08b., 146a). In spite of these references to the Ari z'l, there is no indication in the book that the author was influenced by the distinctive teachings of Lurianic kabbalah. His interpretations of the word zo't follow the more standard kabbalistic symbolism known from pre-Lurianic works.