He narrated traditions in Nishapur and Baghdad, and was regarded as one of the experts in this discipline. One of his reports reaches us with a lofty chain of transmission in the fascicle of Ibn Nujayd.
Al-Ḥākim said: “I heard Abū al-Faḍl ibn Ibrāhīm say: ‘Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Sawwār passed away on Tuesday, eleven nights having elapsed of Dhu al-Qaʿdah in the year 288 AH, and Ibn Khuzaymah led the funeral prayer over him.’”
I add: He was well into his seventies.
Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Tamimi (1), Aḥmad ibn Hibat Allah ibn Aḥmad (2), and Zaynab bint Kindi (3) related to us—through direct audition—from al-Muʾayyad ibn Muḥammad al-Tusi; he informed us: Muḥammad ibn al-Fuḍayl the jurist (ḥ).
The same three also narrated to us, through ʿAbd al-Muʿizz ibn Muḥammad al-Bazzāz; he informed us: Tamīm ibn Abī Saʿīd (ḥ).
They further transmitted to us from Zaynab bint Abī al-Qāsim. She said: Ismāʿīl ibn Abī al-Qāsim informed us; they said:
ʿUmar ibn Aḥmad ibn Masrūr informed us; Ismāʿīl ibn Nujayd ibn Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Sulamī informed us; Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Sawwār narrated to us; Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; al-Mughīra ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—from Abū al-Zinād, from al-Aʿraj—on the authority of Abū Hurayrah:
The Prophet ﷺ said, “By Him in whose hand is Muhammad’s soul, if you knew what I know you would weep much and laugh little.” (4)