Al-Samʿānī said, “He was eloquent in debate, devout, ascetic, precise, and well-versed in the rulings of the Quran and in the laws of inheritance (1).

Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Farrāʾ recounted: “I stayed with him for five years. Whenever news of a reprehensible act reached him, it distressed him deeply. He was relentless toward the innovators; his word was always uppermost against them, while his companions suppressed them, and no one dared oppose them. He was chaste and upright. He first taught in his own mosque, then moved to the eastern quarter to teach there, and later lectured in the al-Mahdī Grand Mosque. When Abū Yaʿlā was on his deathbed, he instructed that Abū Jaʿfar wash his body (2); likewise, when the caliph al-Qāʾim lay dying, he charged Abū Jaʿfar with washing him. Abū Jaʿfar complied and accepted nothing of what had been designated for him—indeed, when he was told, ‘Take the Commander of the Faithful’s shirt for blessing,’ he merely blotted it dry (3) with a cloth and said, ‘The blessing has been obtained.’

“Later he summoned al-Muqtadī and pledged him allegiance privately … until he said:

“Abū Jaʿfar was arrested during the turbulence caused by Ibn al-Qushayrī (4) and was imprisoned for several days. He fasted continuously and would take no food from anyone. I entered and found him reading the mushaf. He fell ill, and when his condition worsened and the people clamored over his imprisonment, he was taken out to al-Ḥarīm, where he died. His funeral was widely attended. He was buried beside the grave of Imām Aḥmad, and people gathered at his grave for a long time, until it was said that ten thousand complete readings of the Quran had been recited there.”