—not one of them managed to answer any of those reports, save Ibn Ḥamzah, and even he replied to only a single ḥadith. (1)

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī said: I asked al-Dāraquṭnī while Abū ʿAlī al-Naysābūrī was present, and he replied, “A refined imam.”

Al-Khalīlī relates: I heard al-Ḥākim say, “I do not say this out of partisanship because he is my teacher—meaning Abū ʿAlī—but I have never seen anyone like him.”

Al-Khalīlī also said: Ibn al-Muqriʾ al-Aṣbahānī declared, “I pray for him after every ṣalāh; I used to follow his lead among the shaykhs of Egypt and Syria.”

Then al-Khalīlī said: I heard someone narrate from Abū ʿAlī that he said, “I knocked on Ibn ʿUqda’s door. He asked, ‘Who is it?’

‘I am Abū ʿAlī al-Naysābūrī, the ḥāfiẓ (hadith master),’ I replied.

When we began our exchange he said, ‘So you are the ḥāfiẓ?’

‘Yes,’ I answered.

He retorted, ‘Perhaps the only thing you ḥafiẓ (protect) is your clothing!’

Later, when I returned from Syria I met him again and we reviewed together. He said, ‘By Allah, today you are the ḥāfiẓ; you have surpassed me.’”

Al-Ḥākim said: I heard him recount, “I used to frequent the gold-smiths’ district, and in our neighborhood there was a Karramī jurist (2) known as al-Walī. I studied certain issues with him. Abū al-Ḥasan al-Shāfiʿī said to me, ‘Do not squander your days.’

I asked, ‘Whom should I attend instead?’

He answered, ‘Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Ṭālib.’ So I went to him in 294 AH. When I saw his noble traits, dignified bearing, and his graceful manner of discussing hadith, he endeared himself to my heart. One day he narrated from Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā, from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways. A man then said to me, ‘Travel to…’