Abū al-Rabīʿ ibn Sālim the ḥāfiẓ said: Among my teachers was the consulted jurist (1), the ḥāfiẓ Ibn Zarqūn—“Zarqūn” being the sobriquet of Saʿīd, the father of his grandfather, so called because of his markedly ruddy complexion. Our shaykh Abū ʿAbd Allāh ranked among the leading scholars who had committed the school’s corpus (2) to memory; he combined solid etiquette, exalted standing, generous character, a broad heart, and an expansive commitment to benevolence. I met him in Seville at the same time I met Ibn al-Jadd. There I read to him the Muwaṭṭaʾ, transmitting it through al-Khawlānī by authorization (ijāza) based on his audition from ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad al-Lakhmī, from Abū ʿĪsā al-Laythī. I also read it to him, together with his own audition in the year twenty (520 AH), from the judge ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Qaysī al-Waḥīdī, on the strength of his audition from Mawlā al-Ṭallāʿ. In addition, I read to him al-Taqaṣṣī by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, along with his audition in Marrakesh in the year 516 AH from Mūsā ibn Abī Talīd.

He said: I heard it from him in the year 460 AH, and I read to him al-Muntaqā by Ibn al-Jārūd through al-Khawlānī, from Abū ʿUmar al-Ṭalamankī, from Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Nāfiʿ al-Khuzāʿī, from him. I likewise read to him al-Taysīr (3) through al-Khawlānī, from the author, by way of authorization, and I read to him al-Nawādir by al-Qālī according to his own reading to Ibn ʿAydhūn and Khalaf ibn Fartūn, from the vizier Abū Bakr ʿĀṣim ibn Ayyūb, from Ibn al-ʿAzzāb, from Hārūn ibn Mūsā, from him. By virtue of his authorization from al-Khawlānī, al-Ḥasan ibn Ayyūb al-Ḥaddād the jurist informed us from al-Qālī—and this represents the utmost elevation of a chain.

I also read (4) before Ibn Zarqūn: “Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Khawlānī informed you in the year 502 AH, saying, ‘ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Shīrāzī narrated to us in Seville by direct audition—I think in the year…’”