After having studied Talmud under Nathan Pinkerle, rabbi of Alessandria della Paglia, Ricchi became tutor in the houses of several wealthy Jews.
Owing to his great love for kabbalistic studies and to his ascetic tendencies, Ricchi resolved to settle in the Land of Israel.
On the voyage he and all his fellow passengers were captured by pirates and brought to Tripolitza, whence, through the efforts of Abraham Ḥalfon, Ricchi and his family were allowed to return to Italy.
He spent twenty months in travel, visiting Smyrna, Salonica, Constantinople, Amsterdam, and London, and in 1735 set out for Palestine, spending two years at Aleppo and three at Jerusalem.
But the main divisions of the work are three, termed "maftehot," besides the introduction entitled "Olam Katon" (= "microcosmos"), in which Ricchi endeavors to popularize the kabbalah.
The sources for this work besides the Zohar are mostly Isaac Luria's and Hayyim Vital's writings, of which the "Sefer haGilgulim," "Kanfei Yonah," and "Shulchan Arukh" may be particularly mentioned.