He studied jurisprudence under the judge Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Azdī in Herat, and under Abū ʿUmar al-Bisṭāmī in Nishapur.
The judge Abū Saʿd al-Harawī and others, in turn, trained in law with him. Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ, the muʾadhdhin, transmitted ḥadith from him.
He was an exacting, well-grounded imam. Among his writings are al-Mabsūṭ, al-Hādī, Adab al-Qāḍī, and Ṭabaqāt al-Fuqahāʾ (1), in addition to several other works (2).
He travelled through many regions, and his name became widely known. He lived for eighty-three years and died in Shawwāl, 458 AH.
In that same year also passed away: the imam Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī (3), the prolific author; the judge of Sāriyah, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Sarawī al-Shāfiʿī (4); the long-lived Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn Ghālib ibn al-Mubārak, Qur’an reciter of Baghdad; ʿAbd al-Razzāq ibn Shamah al-Iṣbahānī (5); the author of al-Muḥkam, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl al-Mursī, the blind philologist (6); the gnostic of Zanjān, Faraj the ascetic—nicknamed Akhī Faraj; and the leading Ḥanbalī scholar, the judge Abū Yaʿlā ibn al-Farrāʾ (7).