His student Abū Jaʿfar Ibn al-Zubayr said: He was born on the 5th of Ramaḍān in the year 571 AH. He studied under Abū Muḥammad Ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Ḥajarī and remained in his company, completing with him a full recitation of the Qur’an according to the Seven Readings. He also learned the variant readings from Abū Bakr Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad al-Hawzanī in several complete recitations and from the Qur’an-teacher Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan ibn al-Kammād, though he ultimately relied on Ibn ʿUbayd Allāh because of the latter’s higher chain of transmission. With that same shaykh he read al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, and he heard from him the Five Books, missing only a small portion at the end of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. He likewise heard from him the Great Musnad of Abū Bakr al-Bazzār and al-Siyar (1), the abridged edition by Ibn Hishām.

He transmitted ḥadith from Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Ghāzī al-Sabtī, Abū Dharr al-Khushani, Ayyūb ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Fihrī, and several others. He read various works to his own father and recited to him according to the Seven. In Fez he closely attended the specialist in uṣūl, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Fandalawī al-Kattānī, studying with him speculative theology and the principles of jurisprudence, as well as with other scholars in Fez. There he heard ḥadith from ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn al-Maljūm, and in Arabic language he studied continuously with Ibn Khurūf, Abū ʿAmr Murajjaʾ al-Marjīqī, and Abū al-Ḥasan Ibn ʿĀshir al-Khuzaʿī.

He received ijāzas from Abū al-Qāsim Ibn Ḥubaysh, Abū Zayd al-Suhaylī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn al-Fakhkhār, Najaba ibn Yaḥyā, and several others. He was the last person to narrate from Ibn ʿUbayd Allāh and the last whose sanad for the Seven Readings went back to him, both in al-Andalus and in the neighbouring region … until the narrator said:

He was trustworthy, scrupulous, precise, and well-versed in isnāds, narrators, and transmission routes—a pious remnant and a useful treasure. I travelled to him, read a great deal to him, and recited to him. He openly shunned the people of innovation and caprice and was known for that. Sincere in intention, dignified, of complete merit and upright religion, he was fair-minded, humble, held a good opinion of the Muslims, and loved ḥadith and its devotees.

In Málaga he would sit with us the entire day with hardly a break, and I would recite to him at night because his days were fully taken up. He was extremely alert.