He acquired his knowledge of the Arabic tongue from al-Azhari (1) and others.
He was also known as al-Fāshānī.
Fāshān—with an initial f that leans toward a b sound—is a village in the province of Herat.
Abū ʿAmr Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ mentioned him in Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyyah, saying:
“He transmitted hadith from Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yāsīn and from Abū Isḥāq Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūnus al-Bazzār, the ḥāfiẓ.
Those who narrated from him include Abū ʿUthmān al-Ṣābūnī and Abū ʿUmar ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Aḥmad al-Malīḥī, by way of the book Al-Gharībayn.”
I say: He died on the sixth of Rajab in the year 401 AH.
Ibn Khallikān remarked, “His book spread to distant horizons and is counted among the beneficial works …,” and then added, “It is said that he preferred plain dress, would take his meals in seclusion, and enjoyed the company of litterateurs in gatherings of pleasure and song. May Allah pardon him.” (2)

89 – al-Bustī, Abū al-Fatḥ ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad, the Secretary
The eminent scholar and foremost poet of his day, Abū al-Fatḥ ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Bustī, the secretary.
After narrating from him, al-Ḥākim said: “He was the unrivaled man of his age. He told us that he heard a great deal from Abū Ḥātim ibn Ḥibbān.”