Ibn al-Najjār said: “I heard Ibn Sukaynah relate:

‘I said to Ibn Nāṣir, “I would like to read to you the Dīwān of al-Mutanabbī together with Abū Zakariyyā al-Tibrīzī’s commentary on it.”

He replied, “You are always reading ḥadith with me free of charge, but this is poetry, and we are in need of some funds.”

My father therefore gave me five dinars, which I handed over to him, and I completed the reading of the book.’ (1)

Abū Ṭāhir al-Salafī said: “Ibn Nāṣir attended a great many sessions with us. He was originally a Shāfiʿī Ashʿarī, then he moved to the school of Aḥmad in both doctrine and practical law, and he died upon it. His memory and precision were outstanding, his learning was sound, and he was a thoroughly reliable imām.” (2)

Abū Mūsā al-Madīnī said: “In his day he was the foremost of the ḥadith scholars in Baghdad.”

We were informed by Ibn al-Najjār, who said: “I read this in Ibn Nāṣir’s own handwriting, and Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn transmitted it to me from him by direct audition:

‘I spent years without entering the mosque of Abū Manṣūr al-Khayyāṭ, having devoted myself to literature under al-Tibrīzī. One day I came to read ḥadith to al-Khayyāṭ. He said, “My son! Have you abandoned the recitation of the Quran and busied yourself with something else? Come back and read with me so that you may obtain a chain of transmission.”

So I returned to him in the year ninety-two. I used to pray often, “O Allah, show me which of the legal schools is best.”

More than once I went to al-Qayrawānī, the theologian who teaches al-Bāqillānī’s Kitāb al-Tamhīd, yet something always seemed to hold me back.

Then I saw in a dream that I had entered the mosque to Shaykh Abū Manṣūr, and beside him stood a man clad in white garments, with a cloak over his turban that looked like the countryfolk’s dress, pearly in hue, radiant with light and splendor. I offered them greetings and sat before them. Awe filled my heart for the man, and I sensed that he was the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. When I had sat down, he turned to me and said, “Adhere to this shaykh’s school! Adhere to this shaykh’s school!”—he repeated it three times.

Then I awoke.’”}