The evident similarity between the learning etiquette treatises Ādāb al-mutaʿallimīn by (pseudo) Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (597-672 /1201-1274) and Taʿlīm al-mutaʿallim by Burhān al-Islām al-Zarnūjī (fl. between 576/1180 and ca 640/1242) raises the questions of what distinguishes the two treatises and how divergences between them function. Close reading of the notable interventions that (Ps.) al-Ṭūsī’s Ādāb al-mutaʿallimīn represents allows for modeling them as serving the formation of a Muslim learner who is not specifically Sunnī, even if not particularly Shīʿī either. The analysis sheds light on the role of intellectual borrowing and its place in the midst of confessional ambiguity. Key words: History of Ethics • learning • ḥawzah • madrasah • philosophy of law