Ibn Saʿd said, “On the day of the Conquest Abu Usayd was the standard-bearer of the Banū Sāʿidah (1).

ʿAbbās ibn Sahl ibn Saʿd reported: “I saw Abu Usayd after he had gone blind. He was short, stout, with a white head and beard and a thick growth of hair. He died in 60 AH.” (2)

Ibn ʿAjlān related from ʿUbayd Allah ibn Abī Rāfiʿ: “I saw Abu Usayd clipping his moustache so closely that it looked as if it had been shaved by a barber.” (3)

Ibn Abī Dhīʾb transmitted from ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd Allah: “I saw Abu Hurayrah, Abu Usayd, Abu Qatādah, and Ibn ʿUmar pass by us while we were in the kuttāb (elementary Qurʾān school). From them we could smell the scent of ʿabīr—that is, khulūq, a saffron perfume—with which they used to tint their beards yellow.” (4)

Abu Usayd also wore a gold ring (5); apparently the ruling that gold rings were prohibited had not yet reached him.

It is said that he lived for seventy-eight years—may Allah have mercy on him.

He left descendants in both Madinah and Baghdad (6).

The Musnad of Baqī records twenty-eight hadiths transmitted through him.

At Badr his cousin, Mālik ibn Masʿūd ibn al-Badan, was likewise present.