He narrated from Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Bishrān and from a number of others. Among those who related from him were Shujāʿ al-Dhuhlī and Yaḥyā ibn al-Bannāʾ.

He possessed a keen talent for satire. When he was removed from his post as scribe he said:

I was dismissed—though I betrayed no trust entrusted to me,
while others betray and are never dismissed.
This alone shows that the one who appoints and removes
is a man devoid of sense.

He is also the author of the lines:

Alas, my share of your hearts has perished;
for fortunes, like mortals, have their appointed terms.
Life has slipped away and I never gained your nearness—
how many silent graves conceal abandoned hopes!

Hibat Allāh al-Saqaṭī said, “I studied under him; then he repented, was inspired to devote himself to prayer, fasting, and charity, and he washed away the rough drafts of his poetry. He lived for eighty-four years. (1)”

He died in Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, 478 AH.

254 – Shaykh al-Shuyūkh Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Naysābūrī *
The exemplar, the eminent gnostic, Abū Saʿd (2) Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Dawast Dādā al-Naysābūrī, a resident of Baghdad.

He kept company with Abū Saʿīd Faḍl Allāh al-Mīhanī and performed the pilgrimage several times in a state of absolute renunciation, accompanied by a group of destitute disciples. He would lead them through the Arab tribes and thus make his way to Mecca,