the exceptional and beneficial scholar Fakhr al-Din ʿUmar, son of the servant in need of Allah Most High, Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn ʿUmar al-Irbili al-Shafiʿi, now resident in Cairo, has read the whole work to me with critical inquiry, careful examination, full understanding, and technical skill, so that he is now qualified to teach it and expound it, having mastered and refined it. I therefore authorise him to pass it on to anyone who seeks instruction from him, asking Allah to grant both him and me the best reward and even more. Present at his reading, and listening to it, was Shaykh Imam Shams al-Din ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Iskandari—may Allah benefit [through him] (b). I have authorised him as well, and I grant each of them permission to transmit everything that I am entitled to transmit. The reading took place in several sessions, the last of which was on Thursday, 11 Jumada al-Akhira 840 AH. Written by Ahmad ibn ʿAli ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn ʿAli al-Shafiʿi, better known as Ibn Hajar, in praise, blessing, and salutation.