Al-Ḥākim said: I journeyed to him in Ṭūs twice and asked, “With all these countless fatwas you issue, when do you ever find time to compose books?”
He replied, “I have divided the night into three parts: during one third I write, during one third I sleep, and during one third I recite the Qur’an.” (1)

Al-Ḥākim continues: He was a devout imam, consummate in courtesy; among all my teachers I never saw anyone whose prayer was more excellent than his. He fasted continually, stood in night prayer, and gave in charity whatever remained from his daily provision. He constantly enjoined what is right and forbade what is wrong. (2)

I heard the ḥāfiẓ Aḥmad ibn Manṣūr say, “Abū al-Naḍr has been issuing legal rulings to the people for about seventy years, and never has a single fatwa of his been faulted.” (3)

Al-Ḥākim also said: I entered Ṭūs while the ḥāfiẓ Abū Aḥmad was its qāḍī, and he said to me, “In none of the lands of Islam have I ever seen anyone like Abū al-Naḍr—may Allah have mercy on him.” (4)

I (the author) say: Both of the Ḥākims narrated from him, yet, to the best of my knowledge, none of his hadith have reached me with an uninterrupted chain.

Al-Ḥākim stated that he died in Shaʿbān of the year 344 AH.

I add: He had passed the age of ninety.

Abū al-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Hibat Allāh al-Dimashqī informed us; al-Qāsim ibn Abī Saʿd transmitted to us in his book; my grandfather ʿUmar ibn Aḥmad informed us; Abū Bakr ibn Khalaf informed us; Abū ʿAbd Allāh the ḥāfiẓ informed us; Abū al-Naḍr the jurist informed us; he said, “ʿUthmān ibn ….”