Al-Daraqutni said: “The people of Kufa are unanimously agreed that from the time of Ibn Masʿud (may Allah be pleased with him) until the appearance of Ibn ʿUqda, no one more proficient than Ibn ʿUqda was ever seen.” (1)

Abu ʿAmr al-Naysaburi the Younger related: “We reached an inn in Damascus late in the afternoon, planning to visit Ibn Jawsa early the next morning. Suddenly the inn-keeper cried out, ‘Where is Abu ʿAli the ḥāfiẓ?’ I answered, ‘Here he is.’ He said, ‘The shaykh has already arrived to see him.’

“Sure enough, Abu al-Hasan Ibn Jawsa appeared riding a mule. He dismounted, came up to our room, greeted Abu ʿAli, welcomed him warmly, and discussed hadith with him until just before the night prayer (2). Then he asked, ‘Abu ʿAli, have you compiled the narrations of ʿAbd Allah ibn Dinar?’

“‘Yes,’ he replied.

“‘Then bring them out for me.’

“So he produced the collection, whereupon the shaykh slipped it into his sleeve and departed.

“The next morning his messenger came, escorted us to his house, and Abu ʿAli reviewed the collection with him, selecting narrations from it until evening. We then returned to our lodging, where a number of travelling scholars were waiting for Abu ʿAli. They greeted him and proceeded to complain about Ibn Jawsa, listing the reports they rejected. But Abu ʿAli quieted them, saying, ‘Do not do that; this man is one of the imams of the Muslims, and he has already crossed the bridge.’ (3)

Abu ʿAbd al-Raḥman al-Sulami said: “I asked al-Daraqutni about Ibn Jawsa, and he replied, ‘He was solitary in some narrations, and he was not strong.’ (4)

I say: Hamzah ibn Muhammad al-Kinani classed him among the ‘shaykhs of last resort’. For that reason he would say, ‘I have two hundred fascicles from Ibn Jawsa—would that they were blank!’ Consequently, Hamzah gave up transmitting from him.