Those who narrated from him include: Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb—who had once been his own teacher—Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad al-Jurjānī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ad-Daqqāq, the jurist Naṣr ibn Ibrāhīm al-Maqdisī—also one of his teachers—Hibat Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Akfānī, the ḥadith scholar Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad at-Taymī, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Juwaynī, and a number of others; likewise al-Silafī, who received his authorization in writing.

Late in life he came to Ṭūs, where al-Ghazālī collated and verified the two Ṣaḥīḥs (al-Bukhārī and Muslim) with him. He then travelled to Marw at the invitation of its ḥadith master Abū Bakr as-Samʿānī, so that they might receive traditions from him, but death overtook him at Sarakhs.

Abū Jaʿfar ibn Abī ʿAlī al-Ḥāfiẓ said, “In those lands I never saw anyone with a sharper memory than he—indeed, I doubt his like existed in the whole world. He was an itinerant scribe who roamed the earth in quest of ḥadith. I met him in Mecca, where I saw the shaykhs praising him and speaking highly of him; I met him again in Jurjān, and he became one of our close companions.”

Ismāʿīl at-Taymī said, “He was a disciple of Abū Masʿūd al-Bajalī. I heard him recount: ‘Abū Ismāʿīl once entered Dahistān, bought a sheep’s head from my father, and went inside to eat it. My father sent me to him. He asked, “Do you know anything?” I replied, “No.” He then said to my father, “Entrust him to me.” My father handed me over to him, so he took me to Nishapur, benefited me greatly, and my affair has reached the point you now see.’ (1)”

Ibn Nuqta said, “I heard more than one person say that Abū al-Fityān studied under three thousand six hundred shaykhs.”

Khuzaimah ibn ʿAlī al-Marwazī said, “ʿUmar al-Rawwāsī’s fingers fell off from frost during his journeys.”

Ad-Daqqāq said in his Epistle, “ʿUmar lectured in Ṭūs on Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim without …”