Abū al-Qāsim al-Azhari said, “Al-Barqānī is an imām; when he passes away, this whole enterprise will disappear.” (1)

Al-Khaṭīb said, “I heard Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Kirmānī, the jurist, declare: ‘Among the people of ḥadith I have never seen anyone who worships more than al-Barqānī.’”

I asked al-Azhari, “Have you ever seen a shaykh more exact than al-Barqānī?” He replied, “No.”

Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Khallāl mentioned him, saying, “He is peerless, a fabric woven by himself alone.” (2)

Al-Khaṭīb remarked, “I have never seen a shaykh more firmly reliable than he.” (3)

Abū al-Walīd al-Bājī said, “Al-Barqānī is trustworthy, a ḥāfiẓ.” (4)

Shaykh Abū Isḥāq listed him in his ‘Classes of the Shāfiʿīs’ and wrote: “He was born in 336 AH, lived in Baghdad, and died there at the beginning of Rajab 425 AH. In his youth he studied jurisprudence and even authored works on fiqh; afterwards he devoted himself to the science of ḥadith and became an imām in it.” (5)

Al-Barqānī said, “I entered Isfarāyin with three dinars and a dirham. The dinars were lost and the dirham remained, so I gave it to a baker and would take two loaves from him each day. At the same time I would obtain a fascicle from Bishr ibn Aḥmad al-Isfarāyinī, copy it, and, once I had finished it,