Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Lubābah used to say, “Ibn Ḥabīb is the scholar of al-Andalus, Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā is its man of sound judgment, and ʿĪsā ibn Dīnār is its jurist.” ⦗1⦘

Abū al-Qāsim Ibn Bashkuwāl relates: It was said to Sahnūn, “Ibn Ḥabīb has died.” He replied, “The scholar of al-Andalus has died! Rather—by Allah—the scholar of the entire world.” ⦗2⦘

Someone narrated: “A violent wind arose, and I saw ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ḥabīb with his hands raised, clinging to the ship’s ropes, saying, ‘O Allah, if You know that I have set out only seeking Your Face and what is with You, then deliver us.’” He continued, “And Allah granted safety.”

Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Ṣadafī said: I asked Aḥmad ibn Khālid, “The al-Wāḍiḥa (The Lucid Treatise) is truly remarkable and contains tremendous knowledge; what flaw does it have?” He answered, “To begin with, it cites positions that we cannot find attributed to any of Mālik’s companions, nor are they transmitted from them.”

Abū ʿUmar al-Ṣadafī writes in his Tārīkh: “He narrated prolifically and collected extensively. He relied on hadith, yet he could not distinguish their grades and did not know the transmitters, though he was a jurist concerning legal questions. He was criticised for the sheer number of his books. It is reported that he allowed taking material without audition or collation and that he relied heavily on ijāza. He was even accused of fabrication; I heard Aḥmad ibn Khālid censure him for this and belittle him on more than one occasion, saying, ‘His falsehood is evident in the al-Wāḍiḥa in several places.’”

I heard Muḥammad ibn Waḍḍāḥ say: “Ibn Abī Maryam informed me that Ibn Ḥabīb was in Egypt. He would spread out the large scroll and copy for the entire day. So I said to him, ‘How long will this copying continue? When…’”