Mughīrah narrated on the authority of Ibrāhīm, who said:

ʿAbd Allah ibn Masʿūd gave ʿAlqamah the kunyah Abū Shibl, even though ʿAlqamah was barren and had no children.

Al-Aʿmash reported from Ibrāhīm that ʿAlqamah said:

“Whatever I memorised while I was a young man is as though I can still see it written before me on a sheet or a scrap of parchment.”

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “ʿAlqamah is trustworthy and a man of virtue.” The same verdict was given by Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn; when he was asked about him and about ʿUbaydah with respect to their narrations from ʿAbd Allah, he expressed no preference between them.

ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd said, “ʿAlqamah had the deepest knowledge of ʿAbd Allah.”

Ibn al-Madīnī remarked, “None of the Companions had students who preserved his reports and upheld his legal views except three: Zayd ibn Thābit, Ibn Masʿūd and Ibn ʿAbbās. The people most knowledgeable about Ibn Masʿūd are ʿAlqamah, al-Aswad, ʿUbaydah and al-Ḥārith.”

Zāʾidah narrated from Abū Ḥamzah, who said:

I asked Rabāḥ Abū al-Muthannā, “Did you not see ʿAbd Allah?” He replied, “Indeed I did, and I performed Hajj with ʿUmar three times while I was already a grown man.

ʿAbd Allah and ʿAlqamah used to line the people up in two rows at the gates of Kindah: ʿAbd Allah would teach one man to recite, and ʿAlqamah would teach another. When they finished, they would review the chapters dealing with the rites of pilgrimage, and with what is lawful and unlawful.

If you have seen ʿAlqamah, it will not harm you that you have not seen ʿAbd Allah, for he most closely resembled him in bearing and conduct.

And if you have seen Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, it will not harm you that you have not seen ʿAlqamah, for he most closely resembled him in bearing and conduct.”

Al-Aʿmash reported from ʿUmārah ibn ʿUmayr, who said:

Abū Maʿmar said to us, “Let us go to the man who most resembles ʿAbd Allah in guidance, demeanour and bearing.” We went with him until we sat with ʿAlqamah.

Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah narrated from Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, who said:

I said to al-Shaʿbī, “Tell me about the followers of ʿAbd Allah so vividly that I can picture them.” He replied, “ʿAlqamah was the broadest-girthed (1).”