I possess a lofty chain of transmission to him, preserved in the Ghiṭrīfī booklet.

ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim informed us; Abu al-Yumn al-Kindī informed us; ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Salām informed us; Imam Abū Isḥāq reported in his work Tabaqāt al-Fuqahāʾ (1): Ibn Surayj was known as “the White Falcon.”

He served as judge in Shīrāz and was considered superior to all of al-Shāfiʿī’s companions, even to al-Muzanī himself.

The catalogue of his writings ran to four hundred separate titles. Shaykh Abū Ḥāmid al-Isfarāʾīnī used to say, “We keep pace with Abū al-ʿAbbās in the overt matters of jurisprudence, but not in its subtleties.”

He studied law under Abū al-Qāsim al-Anmāṭī, and a great many scholars studied under him; through him the school spread.

Abū ʿAlī ibn Khayrān said, “I heard Abū al-ʿAbbās ibn Surayj say: ‘It was as though we were showered with red sulphur, so I filled my sleeves and my lap with it. It was interpreted for me to mean that I would be granted knowledge as rare as red sulphur.’ ”

Abū al-Walīd the jurist said, “I heard Ibn Surayj say: ‘Rarely have I seen a student of jurisprudence engage in kalām and succeed; fiqh slips away from him and he never attains real understanding of kalām.’ ”

Al-Ḥākim (2) said, “I heard Ḥassān ibn Muḥammad recount: ‘We were in Ibn Surayj’s assembly in the year 303 AH when a learned shaykh stood up and said, “Rejoice, O Judge! For indeed Allah sends at the head of every hundred years someone who will renew—for the ummah—its religious affair (3). Allah, Exalted is He, sent at the turn of the first century ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, and He sent…’ ”