He replied, “Here is a young man from Nīshāpūr who knows it by heart.” I was then brought forward ahead of them all and I recited the ḥadīth. The emir said, “Someone like this must not be neglected,” and he appointed me judge of al-Shāsh.

Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Bayyiʿ (al-Ḥākim) said: Abū Aḥmad’s retention weakened after he lost his sight, yet he was never confused. I heard him say: “I was in Rayy while they were reading to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim his book al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdīl. I said to Ibn ʿAbduwayh the bookseller, ‘This is laughable! I see you reading al-Bukhārī’s Tārīkh to your shaykh word for word, yet you attribute it to Abū Zurʿah and Abū Ḥātim.’ He answered, ‘Abū Aḥmad, know that when al-Bukhārī’s Tārīkh was brought to Abū Zurʿah and Abū Ḥātim they said, “This is knowledge one cannot do without, but it does not befit us to transmit it from someone else.” They therefore seated ʿAbd al-Raḥmān before them, had him ask about one narrator after another, and they added to it in some places and omitted in others.’ ”

I also heard him say: “I heard Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Ghāzī relate: I asked al-Bukhārī about Abū Ghassān. He said, ‘What exactly are you asking about?’ I said, ‘His tendency toward tashayyuʿ.’ He replied, ‘He follows the school of the leading scholars of his town, the Kufans. Had you seen ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā, Abū Nuʿaym, and the rest of our Kufan shaykhs, you would not be asking us about Abū Ghassān.’ ”

Ibn al-Bayyiʿ continued: I heard Abū Aḥmad say: “I heard Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Ghāzī say: I heard ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī say: I heard Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd say: ‘It is astonishing that Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī should ignore Thābit al-Bunānī and not write from him!’ ”

It was reported that some scholars disputed with Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Bayyiʿ about ʿUmar ibn Zurārah and ʿAmr ibn Zurārah of Nīshāpūr, claiming they were one and the same. I asked Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim, “What do you say about someone who conflates them?” He replied, “And who is this blockhead?”

Al-Ḥākim said: We visited Abū Aḥmad together with Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥāfiẓ in the year 340 AH, and he said