He mastered the Qurʼānic readings (qirāʾāt) and perfected them under Abū Aḥmad ibn Muʿṭā al-Mursī, Abū al-Ḥajjāj al-Ṭaghrī, and Ibn al-Faras. He performed the Hajj and remained away for a long period; he transmitted abundantly from Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī, received narrations from one hundred and thirty-three teachers, and compiled al-Muʿjam (1). He used to say:

“Al-Silafī prayed that I be granted a long life and told me, ‘You will be the muḥaddith of the Maghrib, God willing.’”

In Mecca he heard the entire Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī from ʿAlī ibn ʿAmmār, and in Béjaïa he heard from ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq the ḥāfiẓ. Students travelled to him and narrated from him in great numbers.

Al-Abbār said (2): “He was upright, devout, a ḥadīth memorizer, accurate—though others were even more precise than he. The foremost of our companions, and some of our teachers, reported from him because of the loftiness of his chains and his reliability. He granted me an authorization. He authored (Forty Hadiths on Exhortations), (Forty on Poverty and Its Merit), (Forty on Love for Allah), (Forty on Sending Blessings upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ), and other works.”

He passed away in Jumādā al-Ūlā, 610 AH, at roughly seventy years of age.