Rabbi Avraham ben Mordechai Azulai was born around 1570 in Fez, Morocco, into an illustrious family of sages that, according to tradition, came from Castile. In the early seventeenth century, driven out by the persecution, famine and epidemics afflicting the Jews of Fez, he went up to the Land of Israel. On the voyage the ship carrying his writings sank, but he was saved; in thanksgiving, he signed from then on with a signature in the shape of a ship.

He settled in Hebron, where he wrote a commentary on the Zohar, Kiryat Arba. He studied Kabbalah under Rabbi Chaim Vital and his son Rabbi Shmuel Vital, and was deeply influenced by the Ramak's teaching. During the epidemic of 1619 he had to flee Hebron for Jerusalem and then found refuge in Gaza. There he wrote his major work, Chesed LeAvraham, "to recall the kindness of God who saved me from the sword", a kabbalistic work setting out the foundations of faith and the role of the soul, which is still studied.

A legend relates that in 1643, after a pasha dropped his sword into the Cave of Machpelah, the Jews were ordered to retrieve it; chosen by lot, Rabbi Avraham descended into the cave, brought back the sword and is said to have seen the Patriarchs there, passing away the following day.

He passed away in 1643 and rests in the old Jewish cemetery of Hebron. He was the great-great-grandfather of the Chida.