Rabbi Yehoshua ben Nun was a student of the Arizal who lived in Safed. He as a friend to Rabbi Chaim Vital who had all the secret writings of the Arizal. Rabbi Yehoshua was the one to take those writings and hired scribes to copy them, making the secrets of the Kabballah available to the public. He was most likely named after the great Jewish leader Yehoshua Bin Nun (the biblical Joshua).

Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Nun is buried in the ancient cemetery of Tzfat in the graves on the top left of Kever Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, right near one of the two proposed locations of Kever Hayinukah.;

Before passing away Rabbi Yitzchok Luria warned his student Rabbi Chaim Vital to keep his teachings hidden even from his former students. Rabbi Chaim Vital guarded his notes of the Ari's Kabblah vigorously and did not let anyone see them. Around 1587, Rabbi Chaim Vital fell very ill while he was in Tzfat. Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Nun asked his brother, Moshe Vital to let him borrow some of the manuscripts and the latter lent him 600 pages from the Kitvay Ari.