He said: He would pray with humility, and he would hardly ever perform the Sunnah prayers of Fajr and the two Isha prayers except in his home. He would perform four rak'ahs between the two Isha prayers, reciting 'Al-Sajdah', 'Ya-Sin', 'Al-Dukhan', and 'Tabarak' (Al-Mulk), and he would rarely fail to perform them. He would spend the late night (sahar) in prayer, reciting a seventh of the Quran, and he would sometimes raise his voice; he had a beautiful voice.

Once, al-Malik al-Aziz ibn al-Adil came to visit him and found him praying, so he sat near him until he finished his prayer, and then he met with him; he did not shorten his prayer.

As for his creed, Sibt ibn al-Jawzi says about him: 'He was of sound belief and hateful of the anthropomorphists (mushabbihah).' He said: 'A condition of anthropomorphism is that we see the thing and then liken it to something else. Who has seen Allah, the Exalted, so that he could liken Him to something for us!' I (the author) say: His statement, 'Who has seen Allah so that he could liken Him to something for us,' is an excellent statement, of the utmost quality, because the one who saw Him with his own eyes said, 'I saw my Lord,' and remained silent regarding anthropomorphism; so that which sufficed him should suffice us (1).

Ibn Rajab says: 'He did not believe in engaging with the theologians (mutakallimun) in the subtleties of speculative theology (kalam). He was very much a follower of the transmitted texts (al-manqul) in the chapters of principles (usul) and elsewhere. He did not approve of using expressions that were not recorded, and he commanded affirming and passing on (i.e., accepting without modification) the attributes mentioned in the Book and the Sunnah, without interpretation (tafsir), modality (takyif), resemblance (tamthil), distortion (tahrif), allegorical interpretation (ta'wil), or negation (ta'til) (2).'

He had a great deal of good poetry. It is said that he had a long poem on the difficult aspects of the language, and he had fragments of poetry. Among his poetry is his saying (3):

Do you remain heedless, O son of Ahmad, while the fates Are laid out to cut you off very soon?

Has it deceived you that calamities have bypassed you? For how many an arrow of death hits its mark!

The cups of death are circulating among us, And there is no escape for a person from his allotted share.

How long will you make procrastination your habit? Is the warning of gray hair not enough for you?

Is it not enough for you that, at every moment, You pass by the grave of a friend or a loved one?

It is as if you have already joined them shortly, And excessive wailing will not avail you.