He was schooled in the belles-lettres from an early age, and while still a youth he served as a scribe for al-Maʾmūn.

As the years passed, he rose to the vizierate, first under al-Muhtadī in the year 256 AH, and later, in 263 AH, under al-Muʿtamid; after a single year he was dismissed.

He was the brother of al-Ḥasan ibn Wahb. Their grandfather Saʿīd had been a Christian who worked as a clerk in the land-tax bureau. Al-Faḍl ibn Sahl subsequently employed Wahb, praised his abilities, and appointed him over the fiscal affairs of Fārs. Sulaymān himself was born in 190 AH, and his brother was older than he.

Sulaymān collected a large body of hadith, and he mastered the mansūb script (the proportioned calligraphic hand).

Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī the scribe relates: “I heard Sulaymān ibn Wahb say, ‘Abū Tammām once looked in on me while I was writing and exclaimed, “Abū Ayyūb, your prose has melted my poetry!”’”

Jarīr ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Duwād said: “We were seated with al-Muhtadī bi-llāh when he handed a letter to Sulaymān ibn Wahb and said, ‘Draft the reply.’ After Sulaymān withdrew, al-Muhtadī remarked, ‘In his craft he has no peer, but he spoils himself with an insatiable appetite for money.’”

In The History of the Viziers, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Jahshiyārī writes: “Sulaymān was well-mannered, noble-hearted, and easy to live with.”

Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Furāt said: “Among God’s creatures, none surpassed Sulaymān ibn Wahb in the dexterity of his hand and the eloquence of his tongue.”

The author comments: Yet his good works were few. Muḥammad ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn al-Khaṣīb reported that he once saw him reciting in a codex the verse, “Whoever desires the harvest of the Hereafter …” (Q 42:10),