and the higher-chain reports of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masrūr (1), as well as those of Abū Muḥammad al-Jawharī (2), the musnid of Baghdad.
He studied under Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad al-Baḥīrī (3), Abū Saʿd al-Kanjarūdhī, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥamdūn, Abū Yaʿlā ibn al-Ṣābūnī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Muqriʾ, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Khashshāb, Abū al-Walīd al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Darbundī, Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī, Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr al-Qushayrī, Abū Saʿd Aḥmad ibn Abī Shams, Aḥmad ibn Manṣūr al-Maghribī (4), Saʿīd ibn Abī Saʿīd al-ʿAyyār, and many others.
He received from ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Baḥḥāthī (5) the Kitāb of Ibn Ḥibbān, heard from al-Bayhaqī his Sunan al-Kabīr, and—more extensively—from al-Kanjarūdhī the Musnad of Abū Yaʿlā.
He narrated prolifically, dictated to numerous assemblies, produced finding-lists, compiled works, and for his own use selected the subaʿiyyāt (chains containing seven transmitters) along with other items that testify to his diligence in the discipline—yet he was by no means skilled in it, and he was weak in matters of religion.
Fond of transmission, he set out on his travels after growing old and reported a great deal in Baghdad and in Herāt.