Under King Manuel of Portugal, and when about seventeen, he was compelled to submit to baptism, but at the first opportunity fled to Salonica, where he could follow the dictates of his conscience in safety.

They carried on a bitter and envenomed controversy for some time, in the course of which Berab referred to Ibn Habib's adoption of Christianity.

The latter frankly admitted the fact, but pointed out that at the time he was a mere youth, that his involuntary profession of Christianity lasted hardly a year, and that he took the first opportunity to escape and rejoin the religion of his fathers.

In his youth he edited his father's book Ein Yaakov (Constantinople, 1516; by Jacob ibn Habib).

He wrote: She'elot u-Teshubot, a collection of 147 responsa; Kontres ha-Semikah, a treatise on ordination; Perush Kiddush HaChodesh, a commentary on Hilchot Kiddush HaChodesh (rules governing the construction of the Hebrew calendar in Maimonides' code of law).