He practiced an asceticism typical of the philosophers, paying no heed to dress or dwelling. Ibn Ḥamdan allotted him a daily stipend of four dirhams (1). It is reported that people once asked him, “Are you more learned, or Aristotle?” He answered, “Had I lived in his time, I would have been his senior disciple” (2).

Abu Naṣr also wrote polished verse and composed graceful prayers in the idiom of the sages (3). Abū al-ʿAbbās Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah mentions him and lists the titles of his numerous works. Among them is a treatise proving the possibility of alchemy, while the rest are on mathematics and metaphysics (4).

He died in Damascus in Rajab 339 AH, at roughly eighty years of age. The ruler Sayf al-Dawlah ibn Ḥamdan led the funeral prayer over him, and he was buried at Bāb al-Ṣaghīr.

232 – Ibn Mulayḥ, al-Ḥasan ibn Yūsuf ibn Mulayḥ al-Ṭarāʾifī, the distinguished transmitter, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn Yūsuf ibn Mulayḥ al-Ṭarāʾifī (5) of Egypt. He heard ḥadith from Baḥr ibn Naṣr al-Khawlānī, Yazīd ibn Sinān al-Baṣrī, and others.