, al-Baghawī, Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd, Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Ḥaḍramī, Ibn Ṣāʿid, and others of their rank; he gathered an abundance of reports and conveyed them with precision.

Those who narrated from him include: Abū Muḥammad al-Khallāl, Abū al-Ḥasan al-ʿAtīqī, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAlī al-Azajī, Abū Dharr ʿAbd ibn Aḥmad al-Harawī, Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Muhtadī bi-Allah, and many others besides them.

Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb said: “He was reliable, ascetic, and truthful; his first audition was in the year 316 AH.”(1)

I heard ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Simsār say, “I never visited Abū al-Fatḥ al-Qawwās without finding him in prayer.” I also heard al-Barqānī and al-Azharī mention al-Qawwās, and they said, “He was one of the abdāl (the elect righteous).”(2)

Al-Azharī added, “His supplication was answered.”(3)

Abū Dharr said: “I heard al-Dāraqutnī say, ‘We used to seek blessings through Abū al-Fatḥ al-Qawwās when he was still a boy.’”

Tammām ibn Muḥammad al-Zaynabī and others related: “We heard al-Qawwās say that he found among his books a fascicle on the merits of Muʿāwiyah which a mouse had gnawed. He invoked a curse upon it, and a mouse fell from the ceiling, writhed, and died. It is also reported from Abū Dharr that he was present when it died.”(4)

Al-ʿAtīqī said: “He passed away in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir of 385 AH.”