He pursued his legal studies in Ẓufār under the jurist Muḥammad ibn Ḥammād and others. Afterwards he sailed to Kish and Basra, then travelled on to Isfahān, where he stayed for some time and continued his training in fiqh (jurisprudence) with Abū al-Saʿādāt the jurist.

He received hadith from Abū al-Muṭahhar al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl al-Ṣaydalanī, Rajāʾ ibn Ḥāmid, Ismāʿīl ibn Shahrayār, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī al-Ṭāmidhī, Muḥammad ibn Sahl the Qurʾān-reciter, ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Dharr al-Ṣāliḥānī, Hibat Allāh ibn Ḥannah (1), Maʿmar ibn al-Fākhir, and a number of others.

In Baghdad he learned from Abū Muḥammad Ibn al-Khāshshāb and from Shuhda; at the frontier city (2) from al-Silafī; and in Mecca from Abū Muḥammad al-Mubārak ibn al-Ṭabbākh.

He taught and transmitted hadith in Damascus and Egypt. Among those who narrated from him were al-Ḍiyāʾ, Ibn Khalīl, al-Barzalī, al-Mundhirī, al-Shihāb al-Qūṣī, al-Taqī al-Yaldānī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Nushabī, and others.

Al-Mundhirī (3) said: “Most of his original materials were in Yemen, and of all the people I met he was one of the few who truly understood this discipline. He had a good command of Arabic, recited the Qurʾan frequently, and was devoted to abundant worship and periods of seclusion.”

ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥājib said: “Abū Nizār was an imām, a scholar, a hadith master (ḥāfiẓ), reliable, a man of letters and a poet, blessed with fine handwriting, and distinguished for his religion and piety.”

His birthplace was Shibām (4), one of the villages of Ḥaḍramawt. He passed away on the twelfth of Jumādā al-Ākhirah in the year 609 AH.