He was born in 266 AH.
He heard hadith from Muḥammad ibn Yūnus al-Kudaymī, Muḥammad ibn al-Faraj al-Azraq, Ismāʿīl al-Qāḍī, Muḥammad ibn Ghālib—whose entire collection he received—Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Bāghandī, ʿAlī ibn al-Faḍl, and a number of others.
Al-Dāraquṭnī extracted two fascicles of traditions from him.
Those who narrated from him include Ibn Razqawayh, Abū Bakr al-Barqānī, Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣbahānī, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Shāhīn, and several others.
Abū Nuʿaym said: “Al-Dāraquṭnī used to tell us, ‘Restrict yourselves, in Abū Baḥr’s transmissions, to what I have selected—no more.’”
Ibn Abī al-Fawāris remarked, “He requires scrutiny.”
Al-Barqānī related: “I was sitting with Abū Baḥr when Ibn al-Sarakhsī said to us, ‘I will show you that the shaykh is a liar.’ He then asked him, ‘So-and-so ibn So-and-so who resides in such-and-such a place—did you hear from him?’ He answered, ‘Yes.’ Al-Barqānī commented, ‘Such a person never existed.’”
Ibn Abī al-Fawāris also said: “He died with four days remaining of Jumādā al-Ūlā, 362 AH. He used to mix things up: he possessed fine original manuscripts, yet he also had some unreliable material.”
I (the author) say: Those two fascicles are transmitted with an elevated chain by Ibn Khalīl and al-Wildānī; Allah knows best.
In that same year there died: the mufti of Basra, Abū Ḥāmid Aḥmad ibn Bishr al-Marwazī al-Shāfiʿī; Abū Isḥāq al-Muzakkī; Ismāʿīl ibn Mīkāl; and Saʿīd ibn —