Hamzah ibn Yusuf said, “I heard al-Daraqutni say, ‘On more than one occasion I resolved to travel to Abū Bakr al-Ismāʿīlī, but it was never decreed for me.’ (1)

I say: People undertook the journey to him for his learning, not because he enjoyed any genealogical superiority over Abū al-Ḥasan.

Hamzah also said, “I heard the ḥadith master al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī of Basra remark, ‘What Shaykh Abū Bakr ought to have done was to compile a Sunan of his own (2), selecting narrations and exercising independent judgment. He was fully capable of that, given the vast amount he had written, the abundance of his knowledge and understanding, and his high standing. It did not befit him to confine himself to the book of Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī; he was too eminent to follow anyone else,’ or words to that effect. (3)

I say: Part of al-Ismāʿīlī’s distinction is that he recognized the worth of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and chose to bind himself to it.

Al-Ḥākim said: “Al-Ismāʿīlī was the unrivalled scholar of his age, the shaykh of the ḥadith scholars and jurists, and the foremost among them in leadership, dignity, and generosity. The scholars of both camps, and their men of discernment, were unanimous in their esteem for Abū Bakr.”

Hamzah al-Sahmī said: “While I was in Egypt, the vizier Abū al-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn al-Faḍl ibn al-Furāt asked me about al-Ismāʿīlī—his conduct and his writings. I told him about the books he had authored, the many Musnads and the collections of sparsely-narrating transmitters he had compiled, his recension based on Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, and the entirety of his biography. The vizier was astonished and said, ‘He was indeed granted knowledge, prestige, and a noble reputation.’” (4)