Legend says that he was a prominent fighter, mambri, who had an outstanding role in the fighting between the Biak and the Sawai, who inhabited south-eastern Halmahera and tried to establish themselves in the islands later known as Raja Ampat.
During his travels overseas he came to hear about the four kingdoms of Maluku, Kororo (Tidore), Karnaki (Ternate), Jailolo, and Bacan, and decided to make contact with these rulers.
[5] At a time, Gurabesi set out with a large war canoe with 30 rowers, and reached Tidore after an adventurous journey where his supernatural power ensured that the men obtained good water and catches of fish.
[6] An alternative version says that Al-Mansur asked the Sangaji (sub-ruler) of Patani, Sahmardan, to find a man who was capable enough to assist him in a war against Ternate.
Sahmardan promised to look for such a person and travelled the islands, finally meeting the local leader (with a European-derived title, Kapita) of Waigeo, Gurabesi, who accepted to assist in the war.
There, he appointed the four sons of Gurabesi and Boki Taebah, thus his grandsons, as rulers of Waigeo, Salawati, Waigama, and Misool.
[a] There are various versions of this story, one of which says that it was actually the kapita of Buli, Maba, Bicoli and Patani who were made rulers of the four Papuan island kingdoms.
A report from 1649 relates that a Gourabessi brought 24 ships with sago, a locally important foodstuff, from the Papuan Islands to assist the Tidorese king Saidi.