Abū Saʿd al-Samʿānī said: “Ibn Mākūlā was intelligent, learned, well-versed, and a ḥāfiẓ (master memorizer); he was deemed so fit for memorization that he was called ‘the second Khaṭīb.’ He was an accomplished grammarian and a distinguished poet, whose verse was vigorous, whose diction was eloquent, and whose transmission was reliable. Among the Baghdadis of his day there was none like him. He travelled far and wide, yet made Baghdad his home.” ⦗1⦘

Ibn al-Najjar said: “He loved knowledge from an early age and pursued hadith. He would accompany the shaykhs to their homes⦗2⦘, listen to them, journey in search of learning, and he excelled in hadith. He also mastered literature, and he left behind poetry, prose, and authored works.”

Al-Muqtadī bi-Llāh later dispatched him as envoy to Samarqand and Bukhara to secure the oath of allegiance for him from their ruler, Tamghān Khān. ⦗3⦘

Hibatu Allāh ibn al-Mubārak ibn al-Dawātī said: “I met the Amīr Ibn Mākūlā, and he said to me, ‘Take two fascicles of hadith: assign the texts of this one to the chains of transmission of that one, and the texts of the other to the chains of this one, so that I may afterwards restore them to their original order.’” ⦗4⦘

Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī said: “I asked Abū al-Ghanāʾim al-Narsī about al-Khaṭīb, and he replied, ‘He is a mountain—one does not even ask about someone of his stature. We have never seen his like, and whenever I questioned him about anything he would respond on the spot—unless he first referred back to his book.’” ⦗5⦘

We have already noted that the Amīr would answer immediately, and this attests to the strength of his memory, whereas al-Khaṭīb’s practice points to his piety and cautious verification.

Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī related to us, Jaʿfar al-Hamdānī related to us, Abū Ṭāhir related to us