He uses a maze of alphabetical acrostics, line by line he wreathes into his compositions the words of successive Bible texts.

Yet even at his worst he is ingenious and vigorous.

Such phrases as "to hawk it as a hawk upon a sparrow" are at least bold and effective.

Ibn Ezra later on lamented that Kalir had treated the Hebrew language like an unfenced city.

But if the poet too freely admitted strange and ugly words, he added many of considerable force and beauty.