He also said, as al-Ḥusaynī reports from him (1): “I heard our shaykh al-Dhahabī say … I never met him without taking some benefit from him. May Allah have mercy on him.”

3 – Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Ḥusaynī (d. 765 AH):
A contemporary of his, he said (2): “The eminent scholar … he applied himself to the study of narrators and hidden defects, excelled, collected and authored works, and took the lead in teaching and engaging with Qur’an recitation, hadith, fiqh, the two foundational sciences, grammar, and language.”

4 – Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ṣafadī (d. 764 AH):
Also a contemporary, he said (3): “Had he lived longer, he would have been one of the rare men of his age. I saw him stand toe-to-toe with our shaykh Jamāl al-Dīn al-Mizzī, even rebutting him on matters of narrator nomenclature. I met him more than once and would pose to him literary and grammatical questions; I found him, as it were, someone who had reviewed the material only yesterday, so ready was he with the relevant information. His mind was clear, his research solid, and his judgment sound.”

He also said (4): “The virtuous shaykh, the versatile, sharp-witted master … his mind was lucid, his thought on thorny issues comprehensive, and his investigations first-rate. He delighted one with the passages he transmitted from dyads and triads, his critiques were accurate, his acquisition and presentation of material graceful. He mastered Arabic, plunging into its depths for its benefits and literary subtleties, and he became deeply versed in the knowledge of personal names—”