Abū Nuʿaym said, “He was one of the eminent authorities. He wrote on legal rulings and Qurʾānic commentary, benefited from the senior scholars, and kept composing for them over the course of sixty years. He was also reliable.”

Abū Bakr ibn al-Muqriʾ relates from Abū al-Shaykh: ʿAbd Allah ibn Muḥammad al-Qaṣīr narrated to us; our teacher ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Ghanī informed me that he heard the ḥāfiẓ Yūsuf ibn Khalīl say:

“I saw in a dream that I had entered the Kūfa mosque. There I beheld a tall shaykh, the finest I had ever seen. Someone said to me, ‘This is Abū Muḥammad ibn Ḥayyān.’ I followed him and asked, ‘Are you Abū Muḥammad ibn Ḥayyān?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’

I said, ‘Did you not die?’ He answered, ‘Indeed.’

I asked, ‘By Allah, what has Allah done with you?’ He recited, ‘All praise belongs to Allah, who has fulfilled His promise to us and made us inherit the earth…’ (al-Zumar 39:74).

I said, ‘I am Yūsuf; I have come to hear your hadiths and collect your books.’ He replied, ‘May Allah preserve you and grant you success.’ I then shook his hand, and never have I felt anything softer than his palm; I kissed it and placed it on my eyes.”

I say: Abū al-Shaykh was among the scholars who put their knowledge into practice, a man of sunnah and adherence—were it not that his compilations are filled with many weak reports.

Abū Nuʿaym also said: “He died on the last day of Muḥarram, 369 AH.”

That same year, the following also passed away: the musnid of Baghdad Abū Muḥammad ibn Māsī, Makhlad ibn Jaʿfar al-Bāqarḥī, the imam Abū Sahl Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Ṣuʿlūkī, others, and the Chief Judge Ibn Umm Shaybān.

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, the ḥāfiẓ, informed us; Ibn Khalīl informed us; Masʿūd the camel-driver informed us; Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥaddād informed us; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Mihrān al-Ṣāliḥānī informed us; Abū Muḥammad ibn Ḥayyān narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā narrated to us