Shihāb said: “I asked Ibn Batta, ‘Did you hear from al-Baghawī the ḥadith of ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd?’” He replied, “No.”

ʿAbd al-Wāḥid said: I had once (1) seen in Ibn Batta’s notebooks a copy of the ḥadith of ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd which he had scraped out, yet beneath it he had written in his own hand that he had heard it. I mentioned this to al-Ḥasan ibn Shihāb, and he was amazed.

ʿAbd al-Wāḥid also said: Ibn Batta narrated—from al-Najjād, from al-ʿAṭāridī—and ʿAlī ibn Yanāl rejected this and spoke ill of him, until the common people were about to attack Ibn Yanāl, so he went into hiding. Afterwards Ibn Batta tracked down what he had produced in that manner and crossed it out (2).

ʿUbayd Allah al-Azhari said, “Ibn Batta is weak. I possess from him the Muʿjam of al-Baghawī, yet I do not transmit anything from him in the Ṣaḥīḥ.”

Hamza ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir al-Daqqāq said, “Ibn Batta did not hear the Gharīb from Ibn ʿAzīz; he only claimed to have heard it.”

Al-Khaṭīb said, “Ibn Batta transmitted the books of Ibn Qutayba from Ibn Abī Maryam al-Dīnawarī on his authority, but this Ibn Abī Maryam is unknown.”

Ibn Batta also related in al-Ibāna: “Ismāʿīl al-Ṣaffār told us; al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafa told us; Khalaf ibn Khalīfa told us, from Ḥumayd, from ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Ḥārith, from Ibn Masʿūd—the ḥadith: ‘Allah spoke to Moses while he was wearing a wool cloak and sandals made from the hide of a donkey that had not been slaughtered properly. He said, “Who is that Hebrew who is speaking to Me from the tree?” He replied, “It is I …”’