He studied jurisprudence under Abū Manṣūr al-Razzāz (1) and others.
He learned kalām from Abū al-Futūḥ Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl al-Isfarāyinī and ʿAbd al-Sayyid al-Zaytūnī, in which he excelled, advanced, and outstripped his contemporaries; his brilliance became proverbial.

He was born in 517 AH.

He heard ḥadīth from Ibn al-Ḥusayn, the judge Abū Bakr, and a group of scholars.

He then came to Damascus, where he taught, debated, and produced many graduates. After that he traveled to Shīrāz, teaching there as well as at ʿAskar Mukram and Wāsiṭ. Later he lectured at the Niẓāmiyya College in Baghdad, where he was honored with an investiture cloak. Subsequently he was sent as an envoy to Hamadhān, and there death overtook him.

Ibn al-Dubaythī (2) said, “He mastered jurisprudence until he became the unrivaled scholar of his time and stood alone in his knowledge of uṣūl. I read to him (3), and I never saw anyone who combined the various branches of learning more fully, together with eloquent expression. He was dispatched as an envoy to the Khwārazmshāh and died on the journey, at Hamadhān, in Dhū al-Qaʿda 592 AH.”

I say: Those who narrated from him include Ibn al-Dubaythī and Ibn Khalīl; Ibn al-Najjār related—from Ibn Khalīl—from him.

Al-Muwaffaq ʿAbd al-Laṭīf said, “He was tall, intelligent, keen-witted, a diver for meanings. He studied, in secret, logic and the philosophical sciences with Abū al-Barakāt, the author of al-Muʿtabar. There was a debate between al-Mujīr and Ibn Faḍlān that resembled open combat, and al-Mujīr would often prevail over him.”

For his sake the Jārūkhiyya (4) was built in Damascus.