He was born in Damaghan in the year 398 AH (1), and he mastered the Ḥanafī school while enduring severe poverty.

Abū Saʿd al-Samʿānī said: My father related to me: I heard Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, the baker, say:
“I once saw Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Dāmaghānī; he used to keep night watch in Darb al-Riyāḥ, and a man called Abū al-ʿAshāʾir al-Shayrajī provided for his livelihood (2).”

From the same informant he also said: “I first studied jurisprudence in Damaghan with Abū Ṣāliḥ the jurist. Then I set out for Nīshāpūr, where I stayed four months and kept company with Abū al-ʿAlāʾ Ṣāʿid ibn Muḥammad, the city’s judge. After that I travelled on to Baghdad.”

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Hamadhānī said: “He read with al-Qudūrī, kept close to al-Ṣaymarī, then served in the register of legal witnesses before being appointed judge by the caliph al-Qāʾim. He remained on the bench for thirty years and some months (3).”

The judge Abū al-Ṭayyib used to say, “Al-Dāmaghānī is more familiar with the Shāfiʿī school than many of our own colleagues” (4).

Muḥammad further observed: “He was striking in appearance, exemplary in matters of religion, knowledge, intellect, forbearance, gracious companionship, and gentlemanly conduct. He gave charity in secret, was fair-minded (5) in scholarship, and during his lessons would intersperse light-hearted remarks (6) and rare anecdotes much like those related by the Shaykh…"