He saw the Prophet ﷺ, and during Abū Bakr’s caliphate he joined a number of military campaigns; he also transmitted hadith from the Prophet.
He related from Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, Bilāl, Khālid ibn al-Walīd, Ibn Masʿūd, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, and several others.
Among those who narrated from him were Qays ibn Muslim, Simāk ibn Ḥarb, ʿAlqamah ibn Marthad, Sulaymān ibn Maysarah, Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, Mukhāriq ibn ʿAbd Allāh, and a group besides them.
Qays ibn Muslim said, “I heard him state: ‘I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and during the caliphates of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar I took part in thirty-odd—or, he said, forty-odd—engagements, counting both major campaigns and smaller detachments.’” (1)
I say: despite his many expeditions (2), he was nevertheless numbered among the scholars.
He died in 83 AH, though another report puts his death in 82 AH.
As for what Aḥmad ibn Abī Khaythamah transmitted from Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn—that he died in 123 AH—this is a clear mistake or merely a slip of the pen.