al-Safaqusi there is a gap of 147 (1) years in the date of death, something unparalleled for any other narrator pair cited in the book al-Sābiq wa-al-Lāḥiq (2).

He was the one who compiled al-Arbaʿīn al-Baladīyah, a collection of forty hadith that no one before him had undertaken; such an achievement rarely falls to anyone except a ḥadith master renowned for extensive travel.

Among his other works are: al-Safīnah al-Aṣbahānīyah, preserved in a large fascicle which we have transmitted; al-Safīnah al-Baghdādīyah in two substantial fascicles; the Introduction to Maʿālim al-Sunan; al-Wajīz fī al-Majāz wa-al-Mujīz; a fascicle on the Requirement of Reading to the Shaykhs; and two sessions on the virtue of ʿĀshūrāʾ.

He also produced selected excerpts from a number of leading shaykhs, such as Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad al-Sarraj, Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ṭuyūrī, and Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Farrāʾ al-Mawṣilī. He was wholly absorbed in writing, study, and transmission, finding little rest outside those pursuits.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Mundhirī relates: “I heard al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn al-Mufaḍḍal say, ‘The number of al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Silafī’s teachers in Isfahan exceeded six hundred persons, and his Baghdadi mashyakha fills thirty-five fascicles. Every Egyptian who heard from Abū Ṣādiq al-Madani and Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Rāzī al-Muʿaddal owed the bulk of his transmissions to al-Silafī’s instruction.’”