and on al-Taʿdīl (the vindication of narrators); the book al-Tasdīd ilā Maʿrifat al-Tawḥīd; al-Ishārah fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh; Iḥkām al-Fuṣūl fī Aḥkām al-Uṣūl; Kitāb al-Ḥudūd; Sharḥ al-Minhāj; Sunan al-Ṣāliḥīn wa Sunan al-ʿĀbidīn; Sabil al-Muhtadīn; Firaq al-Fuqahāʾ; a Tafsīr that he did not complete; and Sunan al-Minhāj wa Tartīb al-Ḥajjāj (1).

The Amīr Abū Naṣr (2) said: “As for al-Bājī, the holder of the two ministries, he was a jurist-theologian, a man of letters, and a poet. He heard ḥadith in Iraq, taught kalām, and wrote numerous works …,” until he said, “He was eminent, of lofty rank and standing, and his grave is in al-Mariya.”

Qāḍī Abū ʿAlī al-Ṣadafī said: “I have never seen the like of Abū al-Walīd al-Bājī, nor anyone whose deportment, appearance, and reverence for his gathering equaled his.”

When I was in Baghdad, his son Abū al-Qāsim Aḥmad arrived. I accompanied him to our shaykh, the Chief Judge from Syria, and said to him, “May Allah preserve your honor; this is the son of the Shaykh of al-Andalus.” He replied, “Perhaps he is the son of al-Bājī?” I said, “Yes,” whereupon he turned his full attention to him (3).

Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (4) said: “Much was said about Abū al-Walīd because of his close dealings with high officials. He also held the judiciary in places beneath his station, such as Orihuela; he would send deputies there and might visit it once or so. At the outset he had scant means, to the extent that on his travels he had to earn a livelihood through his poetry and—so I heard—by hiring himself out for wages during his stay in Baghdad.”