Abū al-Qāsim learned the sayings of the masters, and he relies on him for most of what he relates, for he authored numerous works.

Likewise, among the masters whom Abū al-Qāsim named in his Epistle, none is known to have supported the Kullābī and Ashʿarī approach that Abū al-Qāsim championed. Rather, what has been preserved from them runs contrary to it, and those who expressed their views explicitly did so only in opposition to it. This applies even to the masters of his own time whom he named when he said:

“As for the masters who were our contemporaries, and those who lived within our lifetime even if we never had occasion to meet them, such as the master and martyr, the spokesman of his time and the peerless figure of his age, Abū ʿAlī al-Daqqāq; the shaykh and foremost master of his time, Abū ʿAbd al-Rahmān al-Sulamī; Abū al-Hasan ʿAlī ibn Jahdam, who resided by the Sacred Sanctuary; and Shaykh Abū al-ʿAbbās