Is semen ritually pure or impure?

A question whether semen is ritually pure or impure, in which Ibn Baz answered that on the correct view it is pure, on the strength of Aisha's hadith about scraping it dry from the Prophet's garment and because it is the origin of the human being, who is pure. ¹

The questioner asked: is semen pure or impure, and does rubbing it off suffice when it is dry, and washing when it is wet? ¹

Ibn Baz answered that on the correct view semen is pure and is the origin of the human being, citing Aisha's statement that the Prophet sometimes washed it and sometimes rubbed it off, and that she used to rub and scrape it dry from his garment; this shows that it is pure, for had it been impure it would have been washed, and scraping and cleaning by removal without water would not have sufficed. ¹ He also reasoned that semen is the origin of the human being, and the human being is pure and his origin is pure: his origin is earth, and earth is pure, then comes semen, so it too is pure, and the human being is pure. ¹

This answer was published on binbaz.org.sa, the official site of Ibn Baz's legacy, as no. 4045 under the heading of impurities and their removal, with no date on the page. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.