ʿUthmān ibn Muḥammad al-Maḥmī of Nishapur […] and he went on to cite a hadith.

Shihāb al-Ḥātimī informed us; Abū Saʿd al-Samʿānī reported: I heard a reliable man say that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī al-Harawī declared, “The student of hadith ought to be quick in reading, quick in copying, and quick in walking. Allah has combined all these qualities in this young man”—and he pointed to Ibn Tāhir, who was sitting before him.

Al-Samʿānī also said, “I heard Abū Jaʿfar al-Sāwī state: ‘I was in Madinah with Ibn Tāhir when he remarked, “I do not know anyone more knowledgeable than I am about the lineage of this master—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—as well as his relics and the circumstances of his life.”’”

Someone else said: “Ibn Tāhir could cover in a single night nearly seventeen farsakhs (parasangs).”

ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Ruhāwī informed us; I heard ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Abī al-Wafāʾ al-ʿAdl say: I heard the ḥāfiẓ (hadith master) Ibn Tāhir recount:

“I travelled from Ṭūs to Isfahān for the sake of the hadith of Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī that Muslim included in his collection (1). A fellow itinerant reminded me of it during the night, so as soon as morning came I set out for Isfahān and did not dismount until I entered the presence of Shaykh Abū ʿAmr. I recited it to him—from his father, from al-Qaṭṭān, from Abū Zurʿah—whereupon he handed me three loaves of bread and two quinces; that was all the food I had that night. I remained with him until I secured what I sought, then I departed for Baghdad. When I returned, he had already passed away.”