He travelled widely and spent a period with Sayf ad-Dawlah ibn Hamdān, the Hamdanid ruler at Aleppo in 952/953, where he held conferences with the famous court poet al-Mutanabbi (915–965).
He continued on to Fars, and gained favour at the Buyid court of 'Aḍud al-Dawlah ibn Buwaih in Shirāz.
Ibn Khallikan recounts a grammatical contest at the hippodrome, ('Maidān') between Abū Alī and the prince 'Aḍud al-Dawlah, on a finer point of grammar over the use of the accusative case.
Ibn Khallikān relates a dream he had while in Cairo that he met three pilgrims in an ancient funeral chapel[n 3] in the village of Kalyūb[n 4].
One pilgrim mentioned that the sheikh Abū Alī 'l-Fārisī had lived there for many years; and that he had been a talented poet among other things.