This report was also cited by the author in the book on the basis of written licence, with his chain of transmission, where he said:

“Ismāʿīl ibn Jawsalīn granted us permission; Aḥmad ibn Tamīm al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us; ʿAbd al-Muʿizz ibn Muḥammad informed us; Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl informed us; Abū ʿUmar al-Milīḥī informed us …”

The apparent identity of this Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl is Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Naysābūrī al-Tiflīsī, the Sufi Qurʾān-reciter. Ibn al-ʿImād says:

“He narrated from Ḥamzah al-Mahlabī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf al-Iṣfahānī, and others, and he died in 483 AH.”

I add: He was reliable and truthful, and he transmitted a great deal of ḥadith, as al-Samʿānī states in the Ansāb. As for ʿAbd al-Muʿizz ibn Muḥammad, I have not located any information about him.

116 – al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAwānah, author of the Ṣaḥīḥ (?–316 AH)

He was among the foremost ḥadith masters and received traditions from the pupils of Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, Wakīʿ, and others.

283 – Al-Ḥākim, in his biographical entry, relates: I heard Yaḥyā ibn Manṣūr the judge say: I heard Abū ʿAwānah—may Allah have mercy on him—say:

“I entered upon Abū Ibrāhīm al-Muzanī during the illness from which he died and asked him, ‘What do you say about the Qurʾān?’ He replied, ‘It is the speech of Allah, uncreated.’ I said, ‘Why did you not say this before now?’ He answered, ‘This has always been my position, but I disliked speaking about it because al-Shāfiʿī used to forbid us to do so,’ meaning to delve into debate and disputation over the matter.”

Abū ʿAwānah passed away in 316 AH.

267 – He served as the judge of Naysābūr for over ten years. He narrated from ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Baghawī, Aḥmad ibn Salamah, and their peers, and he died in 351 AH, as stated in al-Shadharāt.

I remark: the chain is sound.

117 – Ibn Ṣāʿid, ḥāfiẓ of Baghdad (228–318 AH)

284 – Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Ājurrī, in his Kitāb al-Sharīʿah (in two volumes), transmits from Imām Abū Muḥammad Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣāʿid that he said concerning this particular virtue