I said: Imām Abū al-Maʿālī spoke the truth—so it is. Had al-Bayhaqī wished to formulate a school of law for himself and exercise ijtihād within it, he would have been fully able, thanks to the vast range of his learning and his grasp of the areas of disagreement among the scholars. For that reason one finds him hinting at supporting those issues for which a sound hadith exists.

After the people had heard from him what pleased them during his final visit, he fell ill, and when the appointed hour arrived he passed away on the tenth of Jumādā al-Ūlā in the year 458 AH (1). He was washed, shrouded, and a coffin was prepared for him; he was then carried to Bayhaq and buried there. Bayhaq is a district whose chief town is Khusraw-Jird; it was his birthplace and lies two days’ journey from Nishapur. He lived for seventy-four years.

Among those who narrated from him are: Shaykh al-Islam Abū Ismāʿīl al-Anṣārī—by written authorization—his son Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad, his grandson Abū al-Ḥasan ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, the ḥadith master Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn Manda, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl al-Farāwī, Zāhir ibn Ṭāhir al-Shaḥḥāmī, Abū al-Maʿālī Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Fārisī, ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Dahhān, ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Muḥammad al-Khawārī (2), his brother ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Muḥammad al-Khawārī, Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Baḥīrī al-Naysābūrī—who died in 540 AH—and many others besides them.

Those who died the same year include: Abū al-Ṭayyib ʿAbd al-Razāq ibn ʿUmar ibn Shama al-Iṣbahānī (3), a companion of Ibn al-Muqriʾ; the eminent linguist Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl Ibn Sīda (4); and the leading Hanbali authority, Judge Abū Yaʿlā Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Farrāʾ al-Baghdādī (5).