—was a blazing flame, his tongue as sharp as a severing sword. (1)
Abū Tāhir al-Silafī said, “Al-Ṣūrī transcribed Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī onto seven quires of Baghdadi paper, even though he had only one eye.
He went on: Abū al-Walīd al-Bājī relates in his book Firaq al-Fuqahāʾ: ‘Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Warrāq—reliable and precise—told us:
He had seen Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣūrī, a man of fine character, fond of light banter and laughter; behind that there was nothing but goodness and piety. It was simply how he was made, nothing extraordinary. One day he read a section to Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Rāzī, and something came to mind that made him laugh while a group of townsmen were present. They reproached him, saying,
‘This is improper; it does not befit your learning and seniority to read the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ while laughing.’
They pressed him further, adding, ‘The shaykhs of our town would not approve of this.’
He replied, ‘There is not a single shaykh in your town but that he ought to sit before me and follow my lead. The proof is that I have come to you without prior arrangement. Choose any hadith you wish from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: recite its chain and I will recite its text, or recite its text and I will give you its chain.’
Al-Bājī added, ‘I kept company with al-Ṣūrī for three years and never once saw him venture to give a legal opinion. (2)
Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ṭuyūrī said, ‘I studied under many teachers, yet among them I saw none with a better memory than al-Ṣūrī. He used to write with a single eye and was versatile, knowing something of every discipline (3). His word carried authority, and from him al-Khaṭīb acquired his knowledge of hadith. (4)’