a lofty standing, and whoever looked upon him profited by the mere sight. When he spoke, dignity and light enveloped him; one could never tire of sitting in his company. I have journeyed through East and West, met imams and ascetics, yet I have seen none more complete than he, more constant in worship, or finer in deportment. I kept his company for nearly twenty years, night and day; I learned courtesy from him, served him, and read to him (1) all of his transmissions, and I heard from him the greater part of his narrations. He was trustworthy, authoritative, noble—one of the standard-bearers of the religion! Among the ḥadith masters who heard from him were: ʿAli ibn Aḥmad al-Zaydī, Qāḍī ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī al-Qurashī, al-Ḥāzimī, and a group who passed away before him.

I heard Ibn al-Akhdar more than once say, “No one is left of those who pursued ḥadith and devoted themselves to it except ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Sukaynah.”

I also heard him say, “Our shaykh Ibn Nāṣir would sit in his home on a delicate couch; everyone present would sit beneath it—except Ibn Sukaynah.”

Ibn al-Najjar said: “Yahyā ibn al-Qāsim, lecturer at the Niẓāmiyya, informed us, while listing his teachers: ‘Ibn Sukaynah was a scholar who acted on his knowledge. He was constantly reviewing the book al-Tanbīh (2) in jurisprudence and busied himself much with al-Muhadhdhab and al-Wasīṭ. He never wasted a moment of his time. Whenever we entered upon him he would say, “Do not add to ‘Peace be upon you’ more than one question,” because of his intense eagerness for discussion and for establishing rulings.’”

Ibn al-Dubaythī (3) said: “He listened in person and gathered what he heard.” He then named among his shaykhs: Abū al-Barakāt ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm al-Zaydī and Abū Shujāʿ al-Bisṭāmī.