(1) In the book al-Rihanah it is reported that he mastered the science of the Arabic tongue, reached its pinnacle, and occupied its highest rank. He devoted himself to the Kitab of Sibawayh for eighteen years, knowing no other work during that period. He then studied al-Jamhara, mastered it by heart, and corrected the mistakes of its authors. He lived a long life of research and investigation, and used to say: “My daily writing amounts to seventy folios.” Ibn Bassam records in al-Dhakhirah, 1/2/811, that he revived many of the renowned and important diwans which earlier transmitters—whose scholarly equipment was incomplete—had allowed to lapse. He restored passages that their compilers had omitted and rectified errors committed by the authors, such as in al-Bari‘ by Abu Ali al-Baghdadi, Sharh Gharib al-Hadith by al-Khattabi and by Qasim b. Thabit al-Sarakusti, Abyat al-Maani by al-Qutabi, Kitab al-Nabat by Abu Hanifah, Kitab al-Amthal by al-Isbahani, as well as numerous other works on hadith and Quranic exegesis too many to list. He is described in al-Maghrib, 1/115, as “a cultured man of letters, a poet, and an authority on Arabic, descended from Siraj b. Qurrah al-Kilabi, Companion of the Messenger of Allah.” Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar notes in al-Isabah, 2/17, under the entry for Siraj: “A well-known pre-Islamic figure. Abu l-Husayn b. Siraj al-Andalusi, the teacher of Qadi ‘Iyad, claimed Siraj was his ancestor and that he had visited the Prophet as part of a delegation. He maintained that Siraj was the son of Qurrah (with qaf and ra’ pronounced with dammah), whereas the well-known poetic sources call him the son of Quwah. Qadi ‘Iyad remarks: I have found no one who supports our teacher’s claim that Siraj formed part of a delegation…. Al-Marzubani, in Mu‘jam al-Shu‘ara’, mentions Siraj b. Quwah al-‘Amiri of the clan of al-Samut b. Abd Allah b. Kilab, states that he was a pre-Islamic poet, and quotes verses he composed on one of the days of Jahiliyyah.” (*) Al-Silah, 2/653–654; Mu‘jam al-Buldan, 5/223; Mu‘jam al-Udaba’, 19/286.