ʿImād likewise mentioned him in al-Kharīda, saying: “He was celebrated for his merit, and his poetry is well known. Of it are these verses (1):
[of the ṭawīl metre]
It is truly strange that the swords they wield
should menstruate blood, though swords are male;
Stranger still, that in their very hands they blaze (2) like fire,
while the hands themselves are seas.
• Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlī (3), [may Allah have mercy on him] (4), ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ, Abū Muḥammad al-Jīlī.
He was born in 470 AH. He entered Baghdad, where he heard hadith and studied jurisprudence under Abū Saʿd al-Mukharrimī (5) the Ḥanbalī. Al-Mukharrimī had previously (6) built a school and entrusted it to Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir, so there (7) he would address the people, preach to them, and the people (8) derived [extensive benefit] (9) from his exhortations. He possessed a dignified bearing and kept silent except when enjoining right and forbidding wrong. He was deeply ascetic, endowed with righteous spiritual states (10) and unveilings; [his followers and companions relate many statements, deeds, and disclosures about him—most of them exaggerated—yet he was an outstandingly pious man] (11).
He authored al-Ghunya and Futūḥ al-Ghayb, both containing worthwhile material, though he cited in them weak and fabricated hadiths (12). In sum, he was among the most eminent of the great shaykhs [may Allah sanctify his soul and illuminate his grave; he died on the night of Saturday, the eighth of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir of this year] (13). He was ninety years old (14) and was buried in the school that bore his name, may Allah have mercy on him.