Ibrāhīm ibn Mahdī ibn Qalyūnā said: “Our shaykh Abū Bakr—his renunciation of the world and his devotion to worship outstripped even his learning. Some scholars relate that nearly two hundred jurisconsults qualified to issue fatwas graduated under Abū Bakr al-Ṭurṭūshī. He would go to the jurists while they were asleep, place gold dinars in their mouths, and when they awoke they found the coins between their lips.”
Qāḍī Shams al-Dīn Ibn Khallikān relates: “Al-Ṭurṭūshī once entered upon al-Afḍal, son of the Commander of the Armies, in Egypt. He spread his waist-wrap beneath him, and at al-Afḍal’s side sat a Christian. Al-Ṭurṭūshī admonished al-Afḍal until he moved him to tears (1), then recited:
O you whose obedience brings one near to God,
whose right is an imposed and binding duty;
The One for whose sake you have been ennobled—
this man beside you claims Him to be a liar.
Then he pointed at that Christian, whereupon al-Afḍal removed the Christian from his place.
Abū Bakr also authored the book Sirāj al-Mulūk (2) for al-Maʾmūn ibn al-Baṭāʾiḥī.
(1) Among the words he addressed to him—recorded in Nafh al-Tayib, 2/87—were: “The authority you find yourself holding today reached you only because someone before you died, and it will leave you in the very same way. Fear Allah in regard to what He has entrusted to you of this umma, for Allah, Mighty and Exalted, will question you about the naqir, the qitmir and the fatil, that is, the tiniest matters. Know that Allah granted Sulayman son of Dawud complete dominion over the world: He subjected to him mankind, jinn, devils, birds, wild creatures and domesticated beasts, and He made the wind blow gently wherever he wished. Moreover, He lifted from him the reckoning for all of that, declaring: ‘This is Our gift; so give or withhold without account.’ Yet Sulayman did not regard it as a blessing as you do, nor as a mark of honor as you imagine; rather, he feared it might be an *istidraj* (a gradual enticement) from Allah. Hence he said: ‘This is from the favor of my Lord, to test me whether I give thanks or am ungrateful.’ So open your doors, remove the barriers, and champion the oppressed.”
(2) It is one of the most delightful and excellent books in its field, and that alone suffices to attest to its author’s merit. It is said that on the very first folio he inscribed these two verses:
“People send gifts in proportion to their station,
but I offer a gift in proportion to my worth.
They give what perishes, whereas I bestow that
which endures throughout the days and ages.”