His patronymic is Abū ʿAbdillāh al-Iṣbahānī. He lived during the era of the tābiʿūn (the generation following the Companions). He devoted himself to worship and zuhd (asceticism). ʿAbdullāh b. al-Mubārak used to refer to him as "the son-in-law of the ascetics." Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān said, "I have not seen anyone more virtuous than him."
Likewise, Ibn Mahdī said: "I have not seen anyone like him." He would not buy bread from the same baker, nor vegetables from the same grocer; rather, he would purchase from those he knew well, and would say: "I fear that they might show me favoritism in price, and thus I would become one who uses his religion as a means of livelihood." He would not sleep lying down, whether in summer or winter. At the time of his death, he was not yet over forty years old. May Allah have mercy on him.