He set out on his travels before he had yet reached twenty years of age. After entering Baghdad he attached himself to Abū al-Khaṭṭāb Ibn al-Baṭir and heard from him about twenty fascicles that only Ibn al-Baṭir was known to transmit; in turn, he alone came to relay them from him. Among these were al-Duʿāʾ li’l-Maḥāmilī (Supplication for al-Maḥāmilī) and the three Maḥāmilī fascicles.
He likewise auditioned ḥadith from: Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Ṭuraythīthī; al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Busrī; Thābit ibn Bundār; Abū Saʿd al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Fānīdī; Abū Muslim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUmar al-Simnānī; ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAllāf al-Ḥājib; ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Rubʿī; Abū al-Khaṭṭāb Ibn al-Jarrāḥ; the qāḍī of Mosul, Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Wudʿān, compiler of those spurious “Forty” ḥadiths (1); al-Mubārak ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār Ibn al-Ṭayyūrī; Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad al-Sarrāj; al-Muʿammar ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥabbāl; Manṣūr ibn Bakr ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥayd (2); Abū al-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Ibn al-Ṣabbāgh; Abū Ṭāhir Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Qaydās; Abū al-Barakāt Muḥammad ibn al-Munḏir ibn Ṭaybān (3); Abū al-Barakāt Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Wakīl; Abū Manṣūr al-Khayyāṭ; Abū Saʿd Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Asadī; Abū Yāsir Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Khayyāṭ; the sharif Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Anṣārī; Abū Saʿd Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Khushaysh; Abū Ghālib Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Bāqillānī; ʿAlī ibn al-Khall al-Bazzār; and Abū Turāb ʿAbd al-Khāliq ibn Muḥammad ibn Khalaf al-Muʾaddib, the author of Hiba.