and ʿAbd al-Salām ibn ʿAbdīl, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥamdān al-Jallāb, Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Muqriʾ, Ibrāhīm ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Ghānim, ʿUmar ibn Sahl—the ḥāfiẓ—, Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq ibn Nīkhāb, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Barzah al-Rūdhrawarī (1), and a multitude of others.

He used to fast one day and break his fast the next.

Al-Ḥākim said: “He is trustworthy and reliable.”

Ibn Khirrāsh said: “His speech is utterly truthful.”

I say: He reached the pinnacle of precision. It is related from him that he said, “If my book is in my own hand, with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal at my right and Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn at my left, I have no concern”—i.e., regarding the accuracy of his books (2).

Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad (3) states in the History of Hamadhān: “I heard Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad say:

‘I asked Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī about Ibn Dīzil, and he replied: “I have never seen—nor has anything reached me about him—except truthfulness and goodness. He attended with us the gatherings of Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb and Ibn al-Ṭabbāʿ.”’

I said, ‘And at the sessions of Abū Ṣāliḥ?’

He answered, ‘I do not recall.’

I asked, ‘And with ʿAffān?’

He replied, ‘Nor do I recall that, though I met him elsewhere more than once; I have not seen every single person when they were with the hadith scholars.’”

Jaʿfar added: “Then a man confronted me and said, ‘Abū Ḥātim! It is reported that…’”