Al-Khaṭīb said: He arrived in Baghdad putting on a show of zuhd (ascetic detachment), rough living, waraʿ (scrupulous piety), and an obvious disdain for worldly life. The people were entranced by him, and large crowds attended his gatherings. In time, however, he began to accept what he had once refused to take (1); his wealth multiplied, he wore soft clothing, a host of affairs revolved around him, and his followers became numerous. He then announced his intention to go on ghazw (a military expedition), and many people joined him. He marched out to the outskirts of the city; a drum was beaten for him at the times of prayer. Proceeding toward the regions of Azerbaijan, he attracted ever larger numbers until he rivalled the amir of that province. He died there in the course of this very year.
Al-Khaṭīb also said: He narrated hadith in Baghdad, and I wrote down only a few reports from him. One of our companions related to me something that indicates his weakness in hadith transmission. He himself recited to me, quoting someone else, the following lines:
If you obey the soul in every pleasure,
you will be branded as lacking sense and honor.
If you answer the soul whenever it calls,
it will summon you to what is foul and forbidden.
Muhammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUmar ibn Barhān (2), Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ghazzāl, heard hadith from Muhammad ibn al-Muẓaffar and others. He was trustworthy—may Allah have mercy on him.
Muhammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm, Abū al-Khaṭṭāb (3) al-Jabbulī (4), the poet. Among his verse:
Whatever verdict love gives is promptly obeyed,
and whatever the beloved commits is patiently borne.
He loves and complains of wasting sickness;
any passion that does not wear the body away is mere affectation.
He travelled to Syria and passed through Maʿarrat al-Nuʿmān, where Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī ibn Sulaymān praised him with some lines, and he responded extemporaneously. His eyes were sound when he set out, but he returned blind. He died in Dhū al-Qaʿdah of this year. It is said that he was a staunch Rāfiḍī, and Allah knows best.
Shaykh Abū ʿAlī al-Sinjī (6), al-Ḥusayn ibn Shuʿayb ibn Muḥammad, was the leading Shāfiʿī scholar of his time.