In 539 AH, while still a child, he was granted an ijazah (license to transmit) by Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī, Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, the Qurʾān exegete Abū Muḥammad ibn ʿAṭiyyah, and a number of others of whom he alone became the transmitter.

He recited the seven canonical readings of the Qurʾān to his own father, heard ḥadīth from his cousin Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, studied adab in Shaqūra with ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī Yadās—reciting to him as well in the various transmissions—lived to an advanced age, attracted students who traveled to him, and eventually took up residence in Córdoba.

Ibn al-Abbār said: “He was trustworthy and righteous; he lost his sight toward the end of his life and died in Ṣafar, 616 AH.”

Ibn Masdī and others added: “He transmitted much material by ijazah. I had resolved to journey to him, but when news of his death reached me I diverted to Seville; with his passing a major chain of transmission in al-Andalus came to an end.”

The author says: He lived eighty years, and Abū Ḥayyān met someone who narrated from him by ijazah.

Among those who also died that same year were: Aḥmad ibn Salmān ibn al-Aṣfar al-Ḥarīmī; the noblewoman Sitt al-Shām, daughter of al-ʿĀdil and benefactress of the Shāmiyyah complex; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaʿīsh al-Anbārī the scribe; the devout ḥadīth scholar ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Nasīm al-Dimashqī; the Mālikī professor Burhān al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn ʿAllūsh in Damascus; and the grandson of Ibn ʿAsākir, the Imām and ḥadith master ʿImād al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn al-Qāsim (son of the ḥāfiẓ), who died of his wounds after returning from Khurāsān—along with others.