At Bāb Maʿmar one of our elders said to me, “Will you not attend the session of Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Ṭālib so that you may witness his noble qualities and virtues?” He took me along, and I beheld a shaykh the like of whom my eyes had never seen.

Abū Ḥāmid ibn al-Sharqī said, “Khurasan has produced only five leading authorities in hadith: al-Dhuhlī, al-Dārimī, al-Bukhārī, Muslim, and Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Ṭālib.” ⦗1⦘

Al-Ḥākim remarked, “Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Ṭālib lived on the rent from a single shop, receiving seventeen dirhams a month with which he made ends meet. He dictated the book al-ʿIlal and other works besides.” ⦗2⦘

I heard Abū al-Ṭayyib Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥamdūn relate from Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Ṭālib: I heard someone ask Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, “May the hadith scholars write down the books of al-Shāfiʿī?” He replied, “I do not see that as appropriate for them”—meaning that such study would distract them from hadith. ⦗3⦘

I heard Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Muzakkī say: I heard Ibrāhīm relate that he heard Ibn Ḥanbal say, “Wakīʿ never preferred anyone over Zāʾidah in memorization.”

And I heard al-ʿAnbarī say: I heard Ibn Abī Ṭālib say, “I asked Aḥmad about …”