He heard hadith from Qutaybah, Ishaq ibn Rahawayh, and many other scholars of Khurasan, Baghdad, Kufah, Basrah, and the Hijaz.
Bukhari and Muslim transmitted from him—even though both were older than he, having been born and having died before him. He left behind numerous works that are extremely beneficial, and he was counted among those whose supplication is answered.
He once saw in a dream that he was climbing a ladder and ascended ninety-nine rungs. Whenever he asked someone to interpret the dream, the reply was, “You will live ninety-nine years,” and so it happened. His son Abu ‘Amr was born to him when he was eighty-three years old.
Al-Hakim said: I heard Abu ‘Amr relate, “Whenever I entered the mosque to my father while people were gathered around him, he would say to them, ‘I produced this in a single night, and I am eighty-three years old.’”
[Then the year 314 AH began]
[In it]
(1) The king of the Byzantines—al-Dumustuq, may Allah curse him—wrote to the coastal inhabitants ordering them to deliver the tribute to him, otherwise he would fight them. They refused, so he set out against them
(2) at the beginning of that year, spreading corruption in the land. He entered Malatya, killed many of its people, took captives, and stayed there for sixteen days; its inhabitants travelled to Baghdad seeking the caliph’s help against him.
A fire broke out in two districts of Baghdad, causing many deaths; in one of them a thousand houses and shops were destroyed.
Dispatches arrived announcing the death of al-Dumustuq, the king of the Christians—may Allah curse him—and these letters were read aloud from the pulpits.
Letters also came from Mecca stating that its people were in extreme distress because a Qarmatian was approaching with the intent of attacking them, so they had fled to al-Ta’if and the surrounding areas.
A mighty wind struck Nasibin, uprooting trees and demolishing houses.
Ibn al-Jawzi said: On Sunday, eight days into Shawwal of that year—which corresponded to 7 December—a very heavy snowfall descended upon Baghdad, bringing such severe cold that it destroyed much of the date-palms and other trees. Oils—even beverages, rosewater, vinegar—the major canals and the Tigris itself all froze. One of the senior hadith scholars even held a session of transmission on the frozen surface of the Tigris, and hadith was written from him there. Then rain fell, breaking the cold and melting everything, and to Allah belong all praise. (3)