Sabt al-Jawzi (1) said: “He was an ascetic, chaste, devout, and above reproach; for Allah’s sake he feared no critic. The people of Damascus were unanimous that he never missed a single congregational prayer in the Umayyad Mosque unless he was ill. Sabt then related a number of anecdotes about his virtues and the fairness of his rulings. On one occasion a royal ordinance was brought to him; he flung it aside and said, ‘The Book of Allah has already judged this document.’ When al-ʿĀdil was informed of his statement he remarked, ‘He is right—the Book of Allah takes precedence over my writ.’ He would say to al-ʿĀdil, ‘I judge only by the Sacred Law; otherwise, I never asked you for this office. If you wish, find someone else.’

Abū Shāmah said: “It was his son al-ʿImād who pressed him relentlessly until he accepted the judgeship.”

His son also narrated to me: “Ibn ʿUnayn once came to him and said, ‘The Sultan greets you and recommends So-and-so, for he has a lawsuit.’ He grew angry and replied, ‘In the Sacred Law there is no room for recommendations.’”

Al-Mundhirī (2) said: “I heard ḥadīth from him. He was awe-inspiring, of dignified appearance; his gatherings exuded gravity and tranquillity, and he would listen with utmost attentiveness to whoever read before him.”

He died on the fourth (3) of Dhu al-Ḥijjah in 614 AH, at the age of ninety-five.

In that same year there also passed away: the exemplar Shaykh al-ʿImād al-Maqdisī; Abū al-Khaṭṭāb Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Wājib al-Balansī; Shaykh Dhiyāl the ascetic; the ḥadīth scholar ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-ʿUthmānī; ʿAbd al-Khāliq ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Rydān al-Miskī; Abū al-Ḥusayn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Jubayr al-Kinānī; and the centenarian Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Saʿādah.