 His primary focus was on grammar, poetry, rhetoric, and ‘Al-Nawadir’ (Strange Forms).He associated with, and counselled, Ibn al-A‘rābī for about ten years.Tha'lab describes an occasion being at the home of Aḥmad ibn Sa’īd with a group of scholars, amongst whom were al-Sukkarī and Abū al-‘Āliyah.