Judge Abū’l-Fatḥ Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd (1) said: “When I met Ibn Taymiyyah, I saw a man with every branch of knowledge set before his very eyes; he would take from it whatever he wished and leave whatever he wished… ” (2).
The eminent scholar Ibn al-Zamlakānī (3) said: “Whenever he was asked about any field of learning, both onlooker and listener imagined that he knew nothing but that discipline, and they judged that no one else possessed knowledge equal to his. When jurists of every school sat with him, they gleaned within their own madhhabs matters they had never known before. It is not recorded that he ever debated anyone and failed to silence him. He never spoke on any science—whether of the Sharīʿah or otherwise—without surpassing its specialists and those associated with it. His was the upper hand in elegant composition, clarity of expression, systematic arrangement, precise classification, and lucid explanation.” (4)