Abu Hatim al-Sijistani said, “Al-Akhfash was a Qadarite—an evil man. His book on al-Maʿani is only passable, and it contains several passages upholding the Qadarite view (1).

Abu ʿUthman al-Mazini remarked, “Al-Akhfash was the most knowledgeable of people in kalam (theology) and the most adept of them in dialectic (2).”

I say: Among those who studied under him were al-Mazini, Abu Hatim, Salamah, and a number of others.

He himself related: “Al-Kisāʾi came to us in Basra and asked me to read the Book of Sibawayh to him. I did so, and he sent me fifty dinars (3).”

Al-Akhfash also tutored al-Kisāʾi’s son (4).

Thaʿlab preferred al-Akhfash and would say, “He had the widest learning of anyone.”

He authored many works on grammar, prosody, and the meanings of the Quran (5).

It is further related from him: “I traveled to Baghdad and entered al-Kisāʾi’s mosque, where before him sat al-Farrāʾ, al-Aḥmar, and Ibn Saʿdan. I posed one hundred questions to him; he answered them, and I declared him mistaken in every single one. They were about to pounce on me, but he restrained them and said, ‘By Allah, are you Abu al-Hasan?’

“I replied, ‘Yes.’

“So he rose, embraced me, seated me beside him, and said, ‘I would like my sons to acquire good manners from you.’ I accepted (6).”