And the death of Abu Sa'id was (412) AH, because his authorship of "Majmu' al-A'yad" was in the year (398) AH, and he said about Abu Sa'id: "And he was.... etc..." as if he were in the past.

And when he authored the book "Guidance for the Seeker" (meaning Abu Salih), he was forty years old, as appears from his explanation in the biography of al-Husayn bin Hajjaj al-Katib, and his saying to him: "He was in the era of our Sheikh, and the occultation of the Sheikh was in (346) AH."

And his saying: "His favor reached me after twenty years had passed from my life in Monotheism," so his age would be as you have known.

I say: in these texts, there is a discrepancy with his statement about Safi al-Din bin Mahmud al-Fariqi being in his era, and the statement of Abu al-Fath about him and about his book (meaning Abu Salih); and Safi al-Din was in the time of Hatim al-Tubani and Hasan bin Makzun, and they were in (620) AH, and he has numerous books.

Perhaps the Safi al-Din whom Abu Salih mentioned is other than the one whom Hatim mentioned; otherwise, reconciling the two narrations is not possible, or the Abu Salih al-Daylami whom Abu al-Fath mentioned is someone else, or if it is him, then perhaps the sighting of one man by the other was while one of them was in youth or the other was in old age, and perhaps this one reached the era of that one, or by hearing without seeing.