yet you do not exempt the Lord of all worlds from the charge of having a consort and a child! (1)

It is also reported that the tyrant asked him, “What became of the wife of your Prophet?”—seeking to disparage her. He answered, “Exactly what befell Mary daughter of Imrān: Allah declared them both innocent. The difference is that ʿĀʾishah bore no child.” With that he silenced him. (2)

Al-Khaṭīb (3) said: I heard Abū Bakr al-Khwarizmī say, “Every author in Baghdad merely copies from other people’s books—except the judge Abū Bakr. His own breast holds his knowledge and the knowledge of everyone else.”

Abū Muḥammad al-Bāfī said, “Were a man to bequeath one-third of his estate to the most eloquent of people, it would have to be given to Abū Bakr al-Ashʿarī.” (4)

Abū Ḥātim Maḥmūd ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Qazwīnī said, “What Qāḍī Abū Bakr al-Ashʿarī kept hidden of piety and devotion was many times greater than what he revealed.” When asked about this, he replied, “Whatever I display, I display only out of indignation toward the Jews and Christians, the Muʿtazilites and the Rāfiḍites, so that they will not look down on the scholars of truth.” (5)

Someone composed, on the Judge’s passing:

Behold a mountain once beneath whose shade men trod;
Now look—the grave contains that towering grace.

Behold the sword of Islam returned to rest;
See the pearl of Islam nested in its case. (6)