Al-Khaṭīb said (1): “We wrote down ḥadīths from him, and he was truthful, devout, and righteous.”
I add: Those who narrated from him include al-Khaṭīb himself; Ibn Khayrūn; Abū ʿAlī al-Bardānī; Abū Ṭāhir ibn Siwār; Aḥmad ibn Quraysh the builder; Abū al-Barakāt Aḥmad ibn Ṭāwūs the Qurʾān-reciter; Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad al-Sarrāj; Jaʿfar ibn al-Muḥassin al-Salmasī; ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-Baqqāl; al-Muʿammar ibn Abī ʿImāmah; Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Farrāʾ; Abū al-Maʿālī Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Bukhārī; Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Mahdī; Abū Saʿd Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Ṣayrafī; Abū al-Fath Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Muʿayyar; Abū Ghālib Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī al-ʿAṭṭār; Abū Ghālib al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Bazzāz; al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Yūsufī; Abū Naṣr ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-Dabbās; ʿAbd al-Bāqī ibn Muḥammad al-Warrāq; ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Anbārī, the preacher; ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Dīnawarī; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn al-Azraq; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn al-Sammāk; Abū Naṣr Hibat Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣabbāgh; Hibat Allāh ibn Mubārak al-Wiqāyātī (2); Abū al-Barakāt Hibat Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Bukhārī; Hibat Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Narsī; and Hibat Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥuṣayn al-Shaybānī.
Abū Saʿd al-Samʿānī said: I read in my father’s own handwriting that he heard Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd al-Rashīdī say:
“When I resolved to perform the ḥajj, Abū ʿUthmān al-Ṣābūnī and others advised me to attend the recitation of the Musnad of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and the Miscellanies of Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī. So I entered Baghdad and met Ibn al-Mudhhib, who said, ‘I want two hundred dinars.’
“I replied, ‘All my funds amount to seventy dinars; if there is no alternative, then authorize me by ijāzah.’
“He said, ‘I want twenty—”