He also wrote Mahakk al-Nazar, Miʿyār al-ʿIlm, Sharḥ al-Asmāʾ al-Ḥusnā, Mishkāt al-Anwār, al-Munqidh min al-Ḍalāl, Ḥaqīqat al-Qawlayn, and a number of other works.

Ibn al-Najjar said: “Abu Ḥāmid is, without reservation, the imam of the jurists and—by unanimous agreement—the spiritual scholar of the ummah, the independent mujtahid of his time, the very eye of his age. He excelled in the school (madhhab), in uṣūl, in disputed questions, in dialectics, and in logic. He read ḥikma and philosophy, mastered their discourse, and undertook to refute them. His intellect was acute, his comprehension powerful, his insight penetrating, and he could dive deeply into meanings. It is reported that when he composed al-Mankhūl and Abū al-Maʿālī saw it, the latter exclaimed, ‘You have buried me alive! Could you not have waited a little? Your book has eclipsed mine.’ (1)”

Ibn al-Najjar also transmitted, with his chain of authority, that Abu Ḥāmid’s father used to spin wool and sell it in his stall in Ṭūs. As he lay dying he entrusted his two sons, Muḥammad and Aḥmad, to a righteous Sufi friend who taught them penmanship. The small sum their father left soon ran out, and they could no longer secure food. The man therefore said to them, “I think you should both go to the madrasa as though you were students of jurisprudence; perhaps you will obtain some provisions there.” They did as he advised.

Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad al-Khaṭībī said: “I was in al-Ghazālī’s study circle when he related: ‘My father died and left my brother and me only a modest amount, which was quickly exhausted so that we had nothing to eat. We therefore went to a madrasa to study jurisprudence, seeking nothing but a livelihood. Our learning was thus for that purpose, not for Allah—but He willed that it be solely for His sake.’”

Asʿad al-Mīhanī said: I heard Abu Ḥāmid say, “I journeyed to Abū Naṣr al-Ismāʿīlī in Jurjān and remained there until I had taken al-Taʿlīqa from him.” (2)