Among those who narrated from him were: Abū ʿUmar ibn Ḥayyawayh, Aḥmad ibn Naṣr al-Shadhāʾī, ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Abī Hāshim, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Dāraqutnī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Akhī Mīmī al-Daqqāq, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Jarrāḥ, Abū Muslim Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Kātib, and others.

Abū ʿAlī al-Qālī said, “Our teacher Abū Bakr was reported to have memorized three hundred thousand lines of corroborative poetry (1) adduced for the Qur’an (2).”

I remarked, “That would fill forty volumes.”

Abū ʿAlī al-Tanūkhī said, “Ibn al-Anbārī used to dictate entirely from memory; he never once dictated from a notebook (3).”

Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Tamīmī observed, “We have never seen anyone with a more retentive memory than Ibn al-Anbārī, nor knowledge more abundant than his (4).”

They related to me that he once said, “I have committed to memory thirteen trunks’ worth (5).”

It was said that he would eat qaliyya (6) and explain, “I do this to safeguard my memory (7).”

It was also reported that among the items he had memorized were one hundred and twenty complete Qur’an commentaries along with their chains of transmission (8).

Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb concluded, “Ibn al-Anbārī was truthful, devout, and counted among the people of the Sunnah.”