Those who narrated from him were: Ibn ʿAsākir, Ibn al-Samʿānī, Abū al-Mawāhib, the ḥadith-master ʿAbd al-Ghanī, al-Bahāʾ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, his son the emir Murhaf, ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Khalīl the Goldsmith, ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Abī Surāqah, and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Kāfī al-Siqillī.

He, like his father, produced poetry of the highest order.

Ibn al-Samʿānī (1) said, “It was reported to me that he had memorised ten thousand lines of pre-Islamic verse.”

I add: He travelled to Egypt and became one of its Shīʿī amirs; he later departed, passed through various ordeals, and took part in battles which he afterwards set down in a single volume rich with lessons.

Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭayʾ says in his History (2): “He was an Imāmī, sound in creed, yet he concealed this because of his office and resorted to taqiyyah. He composed several works, among them al-Tārīkh al-Badriyy, and he has a large dīwān (3).”

I further state: He lived ninety-seven years and died in Damascus in Ramadan of the year 584 AH.