He transmitted ḥadīth from Muhammad ibn Ayyub ibn al-Durays and Yusuf ibn ʿAsim.
During his travels he also heard (1) in Damascus from Ibn Jawṣā and from Abu Hashim Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā; in Baghdad from Yahya ibn Ṣaʿid; and in Rayy likewise from ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Abi Hatim.
He lived to an advanced age.
Those who narrated from him include al-Hakim, Abu Nuʿaym, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Muʾammil, the Shaykh al-Islam Ismaʿil al-Sabuni, his brother Abu Yaʿla, Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAziz al-Marwazi, ʿUmar ibn Masrur, Abu Saʿd al-Kanjarudhī, and others.
Al-Kanjarudhī described him as a man of piety and reproduced his lineage as cited above.
Al-Hakim said, “He resided near the Sacred Mosque in Mecca and set out to accompany Abu ʿAli al-Thaqafī in the year 325 AH.”
Al-Hakim adds, “I visited him at the beginning of 381 AH when I heard he was leaving for Marw. I asked about his age and he said he was ninety-three. He was ever like a fresh sprig of basil to the Sufi shaykhs of our region. Later I learned that he entered Bukhara, taught there, and died in 382 AH.”
I say: His ḥadīth are sound, and I have not found anyone who impugned him.
His hearing from Ibn al-Durays would mean he was only six years old at the time.
Al-Khalili said, “After 370 AH a shaykh in Naysabur named Abu Saʿid al-Sijzi claimed to have narrated from Ibn al-Durays. People spoke against him and his hearing from Ibn al-Durays was not established, whereas Muhammad ibn Ayyub is unanimously accepted.”
I say: That Abu Saʿid al-Sijzi is someone else, God willing, not the subject of this biography.