Shaykh ʿIlm al-Din said: “I saw, in an ijazah granted to Ibn al-Shahrazuri(1) of Mosul, the handwriting of Shaykh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah. Beneath it(2) Shaykh Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi had written: ‘This is the script of our teacher, the erudite imam,(3) Shaykh al-Islam, the incomparable figure of his age, an ocean(4) of knowledge, Taqi al-Din. He was born on the tenth of Rabiʿ al-Awwal in the year 661 AH; he had mastered the Quran and fiqh, and was debating and presenting proofs before reaching puberty. He excelled in the sciences and in tafsir, and he was issuing fatwas and teaching when he was about twenty years old.(5)
He authored numerous works and, while his own shaykhs were still alive, rose to be counted among the foremost(6) scholars. Of his extensive compositions—carried far and wide by travelers(7)—his writings at this time may well amount to four thousand fascicles, if not more.(8)
For several years he expounded the Book of Allah from memory on Fridays, and his intellect burned brightly,