Saʿīd ibn ʿAlī ibn Yūsuf al-Anṣārī, the Andalusian, the Granadan, Qur’an reciter.
Ibn al-Zubayr said, “He was an eminent reciter and a prolific traditionist; with him this discipline was conclusively sealed.”
He transmitted ḥadith from the judge Abū al-Qāsim ibn Samjūn—reporting abundantly from him and keeping close to him—from Abū Jaʿfar ibn Sharaḥīl, from Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf, son of the author of al-Aḥkām, from ʿAbd al-Munʿim ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk, ʿAlī ibn Jābir al-Anṣārī, Abū Zakariyyā al-Aṣbahānī, ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Abī Rajāʾ al-Balawī, Abū al-Qāsim al-Malāḥī, Abū Muḥammad al-Kawwāb, Saʿd al-Ḥaffār, Sahl ibn Mālik in Granada, Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā al-Ḥimyari, ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Ghāfiqī al-Shaqūrī in Córdoba, the ḥāfiẓ Abū Muḥammad al-Qurṭubī in Málaga—whose companionship he maintained and from whom he benefitted in the craft of ḥadith—ʿAtīq ibn Khalaf, Abū ʿAlī al-Rundī, the two sons of Ḥawṭ Allāh there, Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Zarqūn in Seville, Abū al-Ṣabr Ayyūb al-Fihrī, and Abū al-ʿAbbās al-ʿAzafī (1), with whom he stayed in Ceuta.
He mastered the seven canonical readings under Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Idrīs al-Umawī; in Fez he studied with Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Futūt—reciting the seven to him as well—and with Yaʿīsh ibn al-Qadīm.
He learned kalām (speculative theology) from Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Baqqāl.
He was granted ijāza by Ibn Nūḥ, Ibn ʿAwn Allāh, Abū Muḥammad al-Zuhrī, and Abū ʿUmar.