He enjoyed great standing, an ocean of learning whose reach in jurisprudence was unmatched. Whoever consults his book al-Shāfī will recognize his scholarly rank, were it not for the distortion caused by the hostility of certain imams—despite his proven reliability in what he relates.
Abū Ḥafṣ al-Barmakī said, “I heard him say, ‘Our teacher Abū Bakr al-Khallāl took from me about twenty legal questions and inserted them into his books.’ ”
Judge Abū Yaʿlā remarked: “Abū Bakr ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz produced fine works, among them: al-Muqniʿ, approximately one hundred volumes; al-Shāfī, roughly eighty volumes; Zād al-Musāfir; al-Khilāf maʿa al-Shāfiʿī; and Mukhtaṣar al-Sunnah. It is related that during his final illness he said, ‘I shall remain with you until Friday,’ and he indeed passed away on Friday. He was remembered for his worship, devotion, asceticism, and contentment.”
Abū Yaʿlā further noted that he was held in high esteem, enjoyed precedence with the ruling authorities, and excelled in the school of Imām Aḥmad.
I say: After Aḥmad’s direct pupils, no one equaled al-Khallāl; and after al-Khallāl, none matched ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz—unless it be Abū al-Qāsim al-Khiraqī.
Ibn al-Farrāʾ stated: He died in Shawwāl 363 AH at the age of seventy-eight—the very age at which his teacher al-Khallāl, his teacher’s teacher Abū Bakr al-Marwadhi, and al-Marwadhi’s teacher Imām Aḥmad had each died.
In that same year there also passed away: Jumaḥ ibn al-Qāsim, the muʾadhdhin of Damascus; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ramlī, son of the martyr Ibn al-Nābulusī; Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ābarī; the ḥāfiẓ Abū al-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Simsār; and Muẓaffar