Ibn al-Athīr⦗1⦘ said: “In his day no one whose hand took up the pen⦗2⦘ could approach his skill⦗3⦘, nor could anyone reproduce the style of Ibn al-Bawwāb. He possessed manifold virtues, mankind was unanimous in praising him, and he was indeed an exemplary man.”

Najīb al-Dīn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Wāsiṭī composed a poem in his honor⦗4⦘ (khafīf metre):

He gathers the stray branches of knowledge; but for … him, the very mother of virtues would be bereaved.
A pen-man whose ink the lions themselves fear⦗5⦘, before whom whole battalions bow in humbled submission.
Whenever his smile reveals black upon white⦗6⦘, both the dark-skinned and the fair stand abashed.
You are a full moon, while the writer is but Ibn Hilāl; like his father, there is no boast in one who trails behind.
Though he may have been first, you by virtue of excellence are worthier still—for you have outstripped him and excelled⦗7⦘, bestowing blessings⦗8⦘.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Ḥasan⦗9⦘, a descendant of Ḥasan ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ, was the leader of the Ismāʿīlīs. Among his own people he made the rites of Islam manifest, safeguarded the prescribed bounds and prohibitions, and enforced them with the lawful deterrents.

The righteous shaykh⦗10⦘ Shihāb al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Khalaf ibn Rājiḥ al-Maqdisī al-Ḥanbalī—an ascetic, devout worshipper, and hermit—would sit each Friday at the foot of the pulpit in the Muẓaffarī congregational mosque, reading prophetic hadith to the congregation. He had heard a vast number of hadiths, travelled in search of knowledge, and memorised al-Ḥarīrī’s Maqāmāt in fifty nights. Gifted in many disciplines and naturally witty, may Allah have mercy upon him.