He was regarded as the leading musnid of Syria in his day.

Those who transmitted from him include: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Kattānī, Abū Naṣr ibn Ṭalāb, Abū al-Qāsim al-Miṣīṣī, al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Ḥadīd, the jurist Naṣr ibn Ibrāhīm, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-Kuraydī, Saʿd ibn ʿAlī al-Zanjānī, and many others.

Al-Kattānī said, “He had a measure of Shiʿite bias and was lax.”

Abū al-Walīd al-Bājī stated, “His Shiʿite leaning borders on outright Rafidism; his learning is scant, and there is weakness in his fundamentals.” (1)

Ibn al-Simsār died in Ṣafar 433 AH, having reached the age of ninety. He alone transmitted from Ibn Abī al-ʿAqab and a number of others. Perhaps his Shiʿism was an act of taqiyya rather than an ingrained trait, for he belonged to a household devoted to hadith. Yet Syria in his era had gone to extremes in Rafidism—as had Egypt and the Maghrib under the ʿUbaydid regime, and likewise Iraq and parts of the non-Arab lands under the Būyid dynasty. The ordeal lasted for years; the extremists held their heads high, Rafidism and Muʿtazilism became close allies, and people follow the religion of the ruler. We ask Allah for safety in our faith.

329 – Ṣāʿid ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Ustuwāʾī,*

the judge, Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Ustuwāʾī (2)