He was born in the year 155 AH.
He studied under al-Layth ibn Saʿd, Mālik ibn Anas, Mufaḍḍal ibn Faḍālah, Muslim ibn Khālid al-Zanjī, Yaʿqūb ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Iskandarānī, Bakr ibn Muḍar, Ibn al-Qāsim, Ibn Wahb, and others.
Those who narrated from him include his scholarly sons—Muḥammad, Saʿd, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and ʿAbd al-Ḥakam—as well as Abū Muḥammad al-Dārimī, Muḥammad ibn al-Barqī, Khayr ibn ʿArafah, Miqdām ibn Dāwūd al-Ruʿaynī, Abū Yazīd al-Qarāṭīsī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr Abū al-Karawwas (1), Mālik ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sayf al-Tujībī, and many others.
Abū Zurʿah declared him trustworthy (2). Ibn Wārah said, “He was the leading shaykh of the people of Egypt” (3). Aḥmad al-ʿIjli remarked, “In Egypt I never saw anyone more intelligent than he—or than Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam” (4). Ibn Ḥibbān stated, “He was among those who thoroughly grasped Mālik’s school and built legal branches upon its foundations” (5).
I say: the claim ascribed to Ibn Maʿīn that he was a liar is not substantiated.