Al-Harizi gives vivid descriptions of the worthies of Toledo, the poets of Thebes, a debate between a Rabbanite and a Karaite, and conditions in Jerusalem. The Tahkemoni also contains critical evaluations of earlier and contemporary poets, although Al-Harizi's appraisal of his contemporaries is not always reliable and occasionally misses their most essential features. The book includes love ditties, fables, proverbs, riddles, and satirical sketches, such as the descriptions of a flea and a defense by a rooster about to be slaughtered.

Al-Harizi's prominence is due both to his light, entertaining, and allusive style, and to the variety of his subject matter. His descriptions of nature are more realistic than those generally found in other Spanish Hebrew poets, with a feeling for the rural life and the animal world. He described storms at sea and, with the exception of R. Samuel ha-Nagid, was the only medieval Hebrew poet to describe battle scenes. Al-Harizi wrote in Hebrew at a time when most Jewish men of letters wrote in Arabic.

עם השירים של ר' חנניה ן' יקר, מן ההוצאה הראשונה. הסכמות: ר' אברהם ב"ר יודא [ברלין], אמשטרדם, כא [מר]חשון תפ"ט; ר' דוד ישראל עטיאס ור' יצחק חיים ן' דנא די בריטון, אמשטרדם, ויצא תפ"ט; ר' יחזקאל ב"ר אברהם קצנאלינפוגין, אה"ו, כז ניסן תפ"ט.