His birth took place in Jumada I, 460 AH.

At the age of five he heard hadith from his grandfather Abū al-Qāsim; he also studied under his grandmother Fāṭimah bint al-Daqāq, his father, and his two uncles—Abū Saʿd and Abū Manṣūr. He received instruction as well from Abū Sahl al-Ḥafṣī, a disciple of al-Kushmihānī, and in 465 AH he heard Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī from him.

He further learned from Abū Ṣāliḥ the mu’adhdhin, Abū Naṣr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī the merchant, Yaʿqūb ibn Aḥmad al-Ṣayrafī, Ismāʿīl ibn Masʿadah, Naṣr ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥākamī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Ṣaffār, Abū Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Muzakkī, and many others.

From al-Ḥākamī he received the transmission of the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd, and from ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Baḥīrī the Musnad of Abū ʿAwānah.

He transmitted prolifically; his fame spread far and wide, and students travelled to him from distant regions.

Those who narrated from him include Ibn ʿAsākir (1), al-Samʿānī, al-Muʾayyad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭūsī, al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣaffār, al-Muʾayyad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Qushayrī, al-Muṭahhar ibn Abī Bakr al-Bayhaqī, Abū al-Futūḥ Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Bakrī, Abū al-Muẓaffar ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn al-Samʿānī, and a great many others.

He dictated numerous teaching sessions, compiled a collection of forty hadiths, and toward the end of his life (2) he suffered from deafness and could hear only when a reciter raised his voice.

Al-Samʿānī said: “I heard our colleagues remark that he claimed to have heard al-Risālah from his grandfather, yet nothing has been verified from his grandfather for him except a few fascicles transmitted by Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj.”