never was a more commanding preacher heard in al-Andalus. He was the most knowledgeable of people regarding the disagreements of the scholars, a discerning poet and refined man of letters. He produced very fine works; his chosen path was rational inquiry and dialectic, and he inclined toward the school of Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī.

Muḥammad ibn Ḥārith al-Qarawī spoke of him, saying: “He was a man of penetration and attainment, trained in disputation, distinguished by fairness, keen of understanding, vast in learning, eloquent yet concise. He pursued the ways of virtue, befriended its people, and was ever repeating the reports of the righteous.”

He performed the pilgrimage in 308 AH, remained on his journey for forty months, and when he returned he brought into al-Andalus a great many books on dialectic and on the Arabic language.

Al-Nāṣir subjected him to more than one test of trustworthiness and dispatched him as an envoy on several occasions; he emerged each time with praise and fulfilled every charge commendably. Thereafter he appointed him judge of the district of Mérida (1), then judge over all the eastern frontier regions, and finally elevated him to the post of Chief Judge, assigning to him as well the imamate of the great mosque of al-Zahrāʾ.

Abū Muḥammad Ibn Ḥazm relates: Hakam ibn Mundhir ibn Saʿīd told me—reporting from my father—that he once performed the pilgrimage on foot with a group of fellow walkers; they became separated, water failed them in the Ḥijāz, and they lost their way.

He said: “We took shelter in a cave, awaiting death. I laid my head against the mountain and saw a stone facing me. I worked at it, pulled it out, and water burst forth; we drank and filled our waterskins.”

Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said: “I was informed that a man once encountered the judge Mundhir ibn Saʿīd during the pre-dawn hours, sitting on a bench in the mosque. He recognized him, sat down beside him, and said, ‘O—’”