These Aqaid were written in simple language - one of them originally in Berber - and were short so that they could be easily memorised and understood by students beginning their studies and by ordinary people as well.

The works added by subsequent Ibadhi scholars of later times were mainly commentaries on some of these creeds. The earliest and most significant is the commentary written on the poem of Abu Nasr by Abu Tahir Ismail b. Musa al-Jitali entitled Sharh al-Nuniyah.294 In his other two works, Qawaid al-Islam and Qanatir al-Khairat, al-Jitali included his own form of the Ibadhi theological views,295 but it is remarkably brief compared with his large commentary on al-Nuniyah which consists of three great volumes containing a detailed study of Islamic theology.

Before moving to later periods, another author must be mentioned here. Although his contribution to the field of theology was not great, he preserved in his works many theological opinions from earlier sources, some of which are still lost. The author was Abu al-Fadl Abu al-Qasim b. Ibrahim al-Barradi.296 Two of his works contain material on theology. The first entitled Shifa al-haim bi sharhi badi al-Daaim is his commentary of the first five poems and part of the sixth poem of the Diwan of Abu Bakr Ahmad b. al-Nazr al-Omani. The first four poems deal with the topics of unity and refutation of anthropomorphism, the proof for the cognition of God, creation of actions, and the creation of the Qur’an. He also completed the commentary on the fifth poem on ablution and thirteen verses from the sixth poem on the festival prayers (Salat al-I’dain), but he did not comment on the rest of the Diwan. His other work is a short treatise designed to give the Ibadhi definitions of a number of useful technical terms. The treatise is entitled Risalah fi al-haqa’iq.297

Towards the end of the eighth century H. Ibn Jumai translated Aqidat al-tawhid into Arabic, and in 904 H. Abu al-Abbas Ahmad b. Said al-Shammakhi (d. 928 H.) Completed his commentary on the Aqidah. The second commentary on it was written by Abu Sulaiman Dawud b. Ibrahim al-Talati (d. 967 H).298 Among the theological works based on this Aqidah of Ibn Jumai is al-Luluah fi ilm al-tawhid, a poem (Urjuzah) by Qasim b. Sulaiman b. Muhammad al-Shammakhi (d. about 1275 H.),299 who also wrote a large commentary on his poem.300 Shaikh Abu Sittah wrote a super commentary (Hashiyah) on the commentary of al-Shammakhi mentioned earlier.301 The last commentary on Aqidat al-tawhid of Ibn Jumai was written by Shaikh Muhammad b. Yusuf Atfaiyish (d. 1336 H.) and was lithographed in Algiers 1326 H.

Regarding al-Qasidah al-Nuniyah of Abu Nasr, a number of commentaries was written on it apart from the commentary of Ismail al-Jitali already mentioned.