Al-Samʿānī said: He was a righteous, devout, and virtuous shaykh, of fine conduct, truthful and reliable. I read the Jāmiʿ of al-Tirmidhī to him, and it was read before him on several occasions in Baghdad. He penned a copy of the work in his own hand and endowed it. His audition was also found on the master manuscripts of al-Muʾtaman al-Sājī and Abū Muḥammad ibn al-Samarkandī. I was reciting to him when he fell ill; one of the listeners sent him some gold, but he would not accept it, saying, “Am I, after the age of seventy and with death approaching, to take payment for the ḥadith of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?” He returned the money even though he was in need of it. Thereafter he resided near the Sacred Mosque in Mecca until he died. He supported himself by copying the book of Abū ʿĪsā for a wage and lived on that. (1)

Ibn Nuqṭah (2) said: He was a Sufi who enjoyed the blessing of Shaykh al-Islām. He adhered to poverty and scrupulous piety until he died in Mecca, on the twenty-fifth of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, three days after the pilgrims had departed—may Allah have mercy on him.

I (the author) say: He was among those who granted authorization recorded in al-Nishtibrī’s ijāza. (3)

He died in 548 AH. Our teacher Ibn al-Ẓāhirī read the entire Jāmiʿ of Abū ʿĪsā with al-Nishtibrī on the authority of al-Karūkhī, and ʿUmar ibn Karam likewise narrated the Jāmiʿ by virtue of the authorization he had received from al-Karūkhī. Thus al-Karūkhī is in the same tier as the shaykh of the ḥāfiẓ, Abū ʿAlī ibn Sukrah al-Ṣadafī, in the transmission of that book—Allah knows best.