Fourth: A biography of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaymān ibn Ḥawṭ Allāh, whose name appears in one of the audition certificates recorded on the title page: He is Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd ibn Ḥawṭ Allāh al-Anṣārī, al-Ḥārithī, al-Andalusī, al-Andī. The Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī described him, saying: "The ḥāfiẓ, the imām, the muḥaddith of al-Andalus." He compiled the seven qirāʾāt. He was born in the year five hundred and forty-nine. He was an eloquent prose writer, an orator, a poet, and a grammarian, and he took a leading position in the qirāʾāt and the Arabic language. He died in the year six hundred and twelve(1).

Fifth: A biography of the scribe of the audition certificate recorded on the final leaf, namely Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-ʿAbbāsī. Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ḥayy ibn ʿAbd al-Kabīr al-Kattānī said: He is the scholar of Qusanṭīnah and its muḥaddith. He studied in Tunis, and he had a transmission from Ḥasan al-Sharīf and others. He died in the year one thousand two hundred and fifty-one. He has a register of his chains of transmission for the six authentic collections, compiled for him by his student, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Ṣāʾigh al-Ḥarakātī.

As for his teacher, namely Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad al-ʿAknūn, to whom this copy was read, his biography was not ascertained(2).

The sixth copy:
It is a photographic reproduction of the original manuscript preserved in the General Maḥmūdiyyah Library in al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah, under number (39) ḥadīth. We have designated it with the symbol (W).

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(1) Al-Dhahabī, in al-Siyar, 22/41–42.
(2) ʿAbd al-Ḥayy ibn ʿAbd al-Kabīr al-Kattānī, in Fihris al-Fahāris, biography (471), 2/832.