He transmitted from al-Kudaymī, Mūsā ibn Sahl al-Washshāʾ, and others, while a number of scholars narrated from him; the last to hear from him was Abū ʿAlī ibn Shādhān.
He possessed ample learning and asceticism, was an able ḥāfiẓ, and would dictate copiously from memory, keeping strict control over what he had memorized. Because his reports were so unusual, some people accused him of fabrication. It happened that, together with the judge Abū ʿAmr (1)—who was tutoring his own son—he dictated from memory thirty linguistic issues, each with its textual proofs from the speech of the Arabs, and for some of them he cited two extremely rare lines of poetry. The judge Abū ʿAmr then showed those questions to Ibn Durayd, Ibn al-Anbārī, and Ibn Miqsim, but none of them recognized any of it. Ibn Durayd exclaimed, “This is something Abū ʿAmr has invented himself.” When Abū ʿAmr later arrived, the judge related to him what Ibn Durayd had said. Abū ʿAmr asked the judge to bring him the Arabs’ poetic anthologies from his library, and [Abū ʿAmr would take up each question and] (2) produce one corroborating citation after another until he had completed the thirty issues. He then said, “As for the two verses, Thaʿlab recited them to us while you were present, and you wrote them in your notebook.” The judge searched for the notebook, and there the two verses were. When this reached Ibn Durayd, he held his tongue concerning Abū ʿAmr the Ascetic and never spoke of him again until his death.
This Abū ʿAmr died on a Sunday and was buried on Monday, the thirteenth of Dhū al-Qaʿdah, in the portico opposite the grave of Maʿrūf al-Karkhī in Baghdad.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn [Aḥmad] (3) ibn Rustum (4), Abū Bakr al-Mādarāʾī, the secretary.
He was born in 257 AH (5) in Iraq, after which he, his brother Aḥmad, and their father moved to Egypt. His father was in charge of land tax under Khumārawayh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, and Muḥammad himself rose to become one of the leading notables of the people.
He heard hadith from Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār and others of his rank.
Al-Khaṭīb relates from him that he said:
“There was an elderly clerk standing at my gate whose stipend had been cut off. I saw my father in a dream saying, ‘My son, do you not fear Allah? You are occupied with your pleasures while people at your door are wasting away from nakedness and hunger. This man’s trousers have fallen to pieces and he cannot replace them; do not neglect his affair.’ I awoke frightened, resolved to show him kindness. I went back to sleep, and when I awoke again the dream had slipped from my mind…"