He travelled, wrote, compiled, and held public dictation sessions.
He heard ḥadith from: Abū al-Faraj ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Bajalī; Bakr ibn Ḥayd; Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad al-Khaṭīb; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Shādhī; Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā ibn ʿAbbād al-Dīnawarī; Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī; a number of scholars in Hamadhān; Sulaymān the ḥāfiẓ; al-Thaqafī the chief; a group in Isfahān; ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Aḥmad al-Wazzān and others in Rayy; al-Shāfiʿī ibn Dāwūd al-Tamīmī in Qazwīn; Abū al-Ghanāʾim ibn Abī ʿUthmān and several others in Baghdad; and al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Dihqān in Kufa.
Those who narrated from him include Ibn Nāṣir, al-Samʿānī, Ibn ʿAsākir (1), al-Mubārak ibn Kāmil, Ibn al-Jawzī, and many others.
He was the maternal grandson of Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān al-Qūmisānī (2).
Al-Samʿānī said: “A venerable shaykh—virtuous, reliable, of lofty rank, and possessed of a vast corpus of narration. His father arranged his early auditions, and I myself heard from him. He was born in the year 458 AH; his first audition was in 463 AH; and he passed away in Rajab, 535 AH (3).”
Ibn al-Najjār relates that his grave is visited.
Shīrawayh commented: “He had a share in every science, was tactful, fulfilled people’s rights, and was accepted by both elite and common folk.”