Zabīdī by lineage, a native of Baghdad, known as al-Bābṣarī, a Ḥanbalī, and the instructor at the college endowed by the vizier ʿAwn al-Dīn ibn Hubayrah.
He was born in the year (1) 545—or, according to another report, 546—AH (1).
He heard ḥadith from his grandfather, from Abū al-Waqt al-Sijzī, Abū al-Futūḥ al-Ṭāʾī, Abū Zurʿah al-Maqdisī, Jaʿfar ibn Zayd al-Ḥamawī, and Abū Ḥāmid al-Gharnāṭī.
Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn Aḥmad al-Kharrāz granted him authorisation.
He transmitted in Baghdad, Damascus, and Aleppo.
He was an imam—devout, virtuous, humble, and truthful.
Those who narrated from him include: Ibn al-Dubaythī, al-Ḍiyāʾ, al-Barzālī, Sālim ibn Rikkāb, Naṣr ibn ʿUbayd, Ibn Abī ʿUmar, al-Shihāb ibn al-Kharzī, Shaykh Ibrāhīm al-Urmawī, the Ayyūbid king al-Ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad, Shaykh Tāj al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, the two preachers Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn al-Ḥarastānī and Ibn ʿAbd al-Kāfī, al-Majd ibn al-Muhtār, al-Fakhr al-Karajī, Badr al-Atābakī, Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Yūnīnī, al-Kamāl ibn Qawwām, al-ʿIzz ibn al-Farrāʾ, al-ʿImād ibn al-Saqqārī, al-Sharaf ibn ʿAsākir, al-ʿImād ibn Saʿd, ʿAlī, ʿUmar, and Abū Bakr—the sons of Ibn ʿAbd al-Dāʾim—al-Shams ibn Ḥāzim, Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Dhikr, Muḥammad ibn Qāymāz, Muḥammad ibn al-Ṭubayl, ʿĪsā ibn Abī Muḥammad, ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Thaʿlabī, al-Shihāb ibn Musharraf, Rashīd al-Dīn Ismāʿīl ibn al-Muʿallim, al-Shihāb Aḥmad ibn al-Shiḥnah, Zaynab bint al-Isʿardī, Fāṭimah bint Jawhar, and Hadiyyah bint—