He was born on the night of ʿĪd al-Fiṭr in 545 AH.
Those who granted him ijāzah were: Naṣr ibn Naṣr al-ʿUkbarī, Abū Bakr ibn al-Zāghūnī, the ḥāfiẓ Ibn Nāṣir, Saʿīd ibn al-Bannāʾ, Abū al-Karam ibn al-Shahrazūrī, Abū Jaʿfar al-ʿAbbāsī, and a number of others; it was quite possible for him to attend their auditions.
He later heard in person from Maʿmar ibn al-Fākhir, Shuhda the Scribe, ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq ibn Yūsuf, Aḥmad ibn al-Nāʿim, ʿĪsā ibn Aḥmad al-Dūshābī, Abū ʿAlī ibn Shīrawayh, and in Damascus from Ibn Ṣadaqa al-Ḥarrānī.
He taught in Baghdad, then came to Damascus in 632 AH, where he transmitted hadith and remained for about two years. He then performed the ḥajj, narrated in Khaybar and in the Sacred Precinct, stayed there in devotional seclusion, and afterwards travelled on to Egypt, where he transmitted a great many reports.
The ḥāfiẓ Taqī al-Dīn ʿUbayd said: “He was a righteous shaykh, given much to night-vigil prayer, worship, and recitation, and he showed patience with the scholars of hadith.”
The ḥāfiẓ ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Ḥusaynī (1) said: “He was one of Allah’s righteous servants, constant in his recitation and engrossed in tending to his own soul. He died in mid-Dhū al-Qaʿdah of 643 AH.”
I say: Leading imams and master-memorisers narrated from him. Among those who reported to me from him are: al-Dimyāṭī, al-Sabtī, Abū ʿAlī ibn al-Khallāl, al-Jalāl ʿAbd al-Munʿim the judge, Zaynab daughter of the judge Muḥyī al-Dīn, Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Dhahabī, and Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Mundhirī (2).