His companion, the Qur’an reciter Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad ibn Mahdī, said: “Makkī informed me that he travelled to Egypt when he was thirteen years old and applied himself to study. He then set out again in 376 AH, resided near the Sanctuary for three years, entered al-Andalus in 393 AH, taught in the Great Mosque of Córdoba, his name became exalted, and his fame spread far and wide.⦗1⦘

Ibn Bashkuwāl⦗2⦘ states: Abū al-Ḥazm Jahwar appointed him as preacher of Córdoba after Yūnus ibn ʿAbd Allāh, for whom he had already deputised.

He adds: “He authored eighty works⦗3⦘. He was virtuous and devout, noted for having his prayers answered. He once invoked against a man who used to harm him and mock him while he preached, and the man was struck with paralysis.”

He died in Muḥarram, 437 AH.

I say: Many people recited the Qur’an to him, among them ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sahl and Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muṭarrif. Abū Muḥammad ibn ʿAttāb narrated from him by ijāza (formal authorisation).

In that same year there also died Abū Muḥammad al-Sakan ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Jumayʿ⦗4⦘ al-Ghassānī in Sidon, at slightly over eighty years of age; he transmitted the Muwaṭṭaʾ from his grandfather. And in that same year