as well as Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Dāmaghānī, Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad al-Sarrāj, Abū al-Qāsim ibn Bayān al-Razzāz, Saʿd Allāh ibn Ṣāʿid al-Raḥabī, al-Mubārak ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Ṣayrafī, and others.

The last person to receive his written authorization and transmit from him was Abū Saʿd ibn al-Ṭuyūrī.

Al-Khaṭīb said: “Al-Ṣūrī was among the most eager of people for hadith, the most prolific in committing it to writing, and the most knowledgeable about it. No one who came to us possessed a clearer understanding of the science of hadith than he. His handwriting was fine and his transmissions precise.

He told me that on the recto of a single sheet of Khurasani paper he could fit eighty lines. Despite the breadth of his quest he was hard to satisfy when receiving narrations; he might have a single hadith read to his teacher several times. He would fast continually except on the two festival days, and he remained in Baghdad until he died there.

He also informed me that his teacher, the ḥadīth master ʿAbd al-Ghanī, quoted material from him in his compilations—sometimes naming him explicitly, while on one occasion saying, ‘I was told by al-Ward ibn ʿAlī.’” (1)

Al-Khaṭīb added: “Al-Ṣūrī was truthful; he narrated from me and I narrated from him.” (2)

The judge Abū al-Walīd al-Bājī said: “Al-Ṣūrī had the strongest memory of anyone we have ever encountered.” (3)

Ghayth ibn ʿAlī al-Armanāzī reported: “I heard a group of scholars say, ‘We have never seen anyone with a better memory than al-Ṣūrī.’” (4)

ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Shīḥī, the merchant, said: “I have never seen the like of al-Ṣūrī; it was as though he—”