Related on his authority were ʿAlī ibn Ayyūb al-Qummī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Rizmah, and a number of others.

His father had been a Zoroastrian, then embraced Islam.

Abū Saʿīd was versatile in many sciences, one of the eminent Ḥanafī scholars and the foremost authority for the Basran school of grammar. He held formal teaching sessions for Qurʾānic readings, the Arabic language, jurisprudence, the laws of inheritance, grammar, and prosody.

He recited the Qurʾān to Ibn Mujāhid, learned lexicography from Ibn Durayd, and studied grammar under Abū Bakr ibn al-Sarrāj.

He was pious and scrupulous, never eating except from the work of his own hands.

He served as a judge over part of Baghdad, and every day he copied a quire, for which he earned ten dirhams thanks to the elegance of his script.

Ibn Abī al-Fawāris said: “He was rumored to have Muʿtazilite leanings, but nothing of that ever appeared from him.” (1)

He produced an excellent commentary on The Book of Sībawayh, compiled The Alifāt of Separation and Connection, and wrote al-Iqnaʿ in grammar, which his son Yūsuf completed. (2) He also left a transmitted booklet entitled Accounts of the Grammarians, and through his chain we heard a section of The Reports of al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār.

He enjoyed great prestige and had many students.

He lived eighty-four years and died in Rajab, 368 AH.

His son Yūsuf died in 385 AH, still a young man. (3)