Those who narrated from him were: Abū Ḥafṣ al-Maghāzilī, Abū al-Muʿammar al-Anṣārī, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Sinjī, Abū Bakr al-Samʿānī, Abū Ṭāhir al-Ṣilafī, Abū al-Faḍl, the preacher of Mosul, Ibn Nāṣir, and others besides them.

We were informed by Ḥammād al-Ḥarrānī, who heard al-Ṣilafī say:

“My eyes have never seen the like of Abū al-Wafāʾ ibn ʿAqīl the jurist. No one was able to debate him because of the breadth of his knowledge, the excellence of his exposition, the eloquence of his speech, and the power of his proof. One day he spoke with our shaykh al-Kiyā Abū al-Ḥasan, who said to him, ‘This is not your school of thought.’ He replied, ‘Am I to be like Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī and So-and-so and So-and-so—knowing nothing at all? I possess ijtihād (independent reasoning); whenever an adversary demands evidence, I have what will defend me and establish my proof.’ Al-Kiyā said, ‘That is precisely what we expect of you.’”

Ibn ʿAqīl himself said, “God protected me in my youth with many forms of safeguarding and confined my love to knowledge. I have never kept company with frivolous people, nor associated with anyone except my peers among the seekers of knowledge. Now, in my eighties, I find my desire for learning stronger than it was when I was twenty; and twelve further years have gone by. Today I detect no decline in quick-wittedness, reflection, memory, or the keenness of my eyesight to discern the faint crescents—save that physical strength has weakened.”

Ibn al-Jawzī remarks: “Ibn ʿAqīl was devout and scrupulously observant of the sacred limits. Two of his sons died, yet he displayed a patience that left people astonished. He was generous, spending whatever came to hand, and he left nothing behind except his books and the clothes he wore—and those were few. He died at dawn on Friday, the second…"