Abū Shaykh said: I heard my son ʿAbd al-Razzāq relate, on the authority of Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿĀṣim, who said: I heard Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim declare:
“Since the day I entered Isfahān, more than four hundred thousand dirhams have come to me in judicial stipends. By Allah, on the Day of Resurrection He will not take me to task for having taken so much as a sip of water from that money, or eaten from it, or clothed myself from it.”

Ibn Mardawayh also cited this report, saying: “I think I heard it from Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿĀṣim.”

Abū Shaykh went on: I heard my son relate from Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Kisāʾī that he heard Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim say:
“When the revolt of the ʿAlawī in Basra took place, my books were lost—nothing at all remained. I therefore reproduced from memory fifty thousand hadiths. I used to pass by the grocer’s stall and write by the light of his lamp; then it occurred to me that I had not sought the owner’s permission for using his lamp, so I went to the river, washed the writing away, and then copied it all over again (1).”

Abū Shaykh said: He held the judgeship in Isfahān for a term under Ibrāhīm ibn Aḥmad al-Khaṭṭābī, and again, after the death of Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad, until the year 282 AH. After that he continued narrating hadith, and people kept listening to him, until he passed away.

He was judge for thirteen years, and the number of court witnesses increased during his tenure.

Ibn Mardawayh said: He was removed from office in the year 282 AH.

Abū ʿAbd Allah ibn Khafīf reported that Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim said: “I travelled with Abū Turāb, and he would say to me, ‘How hard you strive! Nothing will come of you but a judge.’”

After he himself had become a judge, whenever he was asked about a question concerning the Sufis he would reply, “Judgeship is a lowly business, and to speak about the science of the Sufis is impossible (2).”