Judge Ibn Bakrān al-Shāmī relates: “I once said to our shaykh, Judge Abū al-Ṭayyib, when he had reached great old age, ‘O Shaykh, Allah has truly preserved all your faculties!’
He replied, ‘And why should He not? I have never used a single one of them to disobey Allah—so far as I can recall.’

More than one narrator said: We heard Abū al-Ṭayyib say, “I saw the Prophet ﷺ in a dream. I asked him, ‘Messenger of Allah, the report that you said, “May Allah brighten the face of the one who hears my words and commits them to memory,”—is it authentic?’ He answered, ‘Yes.’” (1)

Abū Isḥāq says in his Tabaqāt (2): “Among those of that rank is our shaykh and teacher, Judge Abū al-Ṭayyib. He passed away at the age of 102; his intellect never failed, nor did his understanding waver. Until his death he issued fatwas alongside the jurists, corrected their slips, judged cases, served as a legal witness, and attended official gatherings.

He first studied substantive law in Āmul with Abū ʿAlī al-Zajjājī, a disciple of Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Qāṣ.
He then read to Abū Saʿd ibn al-Ismāʿīlī and Abū al-Qāsim ibn Kajj in Jūrjān, after which he journeyed to Abū al-Ḥasan al-Māsarjassī (3) and stayed with him for four years.
Subsequently he came to Baghdad, took notes from Abū Muḥammad al-Bāfī al-Khuwārazmī, a pupil of al-Dārakī, and attended the sessions of Abū Ḥāmid. Of all the scholars I have met, I have seen none more exhaustive in ijtihād, more precise in verification, or more penetrating in analytical reasoning.”