the book Taqyid al-Muhmal (1).
He was born in Muharram of the year 427 AH.
He narrated from: Hakam ibn Muhammad al-Judhami—his most senior shaykh—Hatim ibn Muhammad al-Tarabulusi, Abu ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, Abu ʿAbd Allah Muhammad ibn ʿAttab, the hadith scholar Abu ʿUmar ibn al-Haddhaʾ, Abu Shakir ʿAbd al-Wahid al-Qabri (2), Siraj ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Qadi, Abu al-Walid Sulayman ibn Khalaf al-Baji, Abu al-ʿAbbas Ahmad ibn ʿUmar ibn Dilhath, and others besides them.
He never travelled outside al-Andalus. He ranked among the elite of the ḥuffāẓ, was powerful in Arabic, brilliant in linguistics, and outstanding in literature, poetry, and genealogy.
He authored numerous works in these disciplines. The ḥāfiẓ Khalaf ibn ʿAbd al-Malik described him in these—and even loftier—terms, saying: “More than one person has informed us about him, and they portrayed him as venerable, endowed with immense memorization, sharp intelligence, humility, and moral rectitude.”
Abu Zayd al-Suhaili (3) states in al-Rawḍ al-Unuf: “Abu Bakr ibn Tahir narrated to us, from Abu ʿAli al-Ghassani, that Abu ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said to him, ‘By Allah’s trust…’”