read publicly, in one hundred fascicles; Manāqib ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, one fascicle; several fascicles on Manāqib al-Ṣaḥāba; and very many other pieces that were never completed. All of this he supplied with his own isnāds, penned in his elegant, lightning-fast hand. His Ahkām al-Kubrá is one volume, while the Ahkām al-Ṣughrá is a small booklet; the book Durar al-Athar, a single volume; Kitāb al-Sīra, a large fascicle; al-Adʿiya al-Ṣaḥīḥa, one fascicle; Tabiyīn al-Iṣāba li-Awhāmin Ḥasalat li-Abī Nuʿaym fī Maʿrifat al-Ṣaḥāba, two fascicles—evidence of his mastery and phenomenal memory. Al-Kamāl fī Maʿrifat Rijāl al-Kutub al-Sitta (1) runs to four tomes, each of which he narrates with full chains of transmission.

On his memorization:
Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn said: “Our shaykh, the ḥāfiẓ, was scarcely asked about a hadith without immediately citing it, explaining it, and stating whether it was sound or weak; nor was he asked about a transmitter without saying, ‘He is So-and-so son of So-and-so al-Fulānī,’ and then giving his lineage. He was truly the Commander of the Believers in the science of hadith. I heard him say: ‘I was once with the ḥāfiẓ Abū Mūsā (2) when a dispute arose between me and another man over a hadith. The man said, “It is in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī.” I replied, “It is not there.” So he wrote it on a slip of paper and passed it to Abū Mūsā to consult him. Abū Mūsā handed me the slip and said, “What do you say?” I answered, “It is not in al-Bukhārī,” and the man was embarrassed.’

Ḍiyāʾ continued: “While in Marw I dreamt that Imām al-Bukhārī was sitting before the ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī, reading to him from a fascicle while the ḥāfiẓ corrected him— or something to that effect.

I also heard (3) Ismāʿīl ibn Ẓafar say: A man once said to the ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī…”