It was claimed that he was a Companion, but the report is not sound. What is established is that he accepted Islam during the Prophet’s lifetime, heard the Prophet’s written directive that was read out to the people, and was present at Yarmūk.

He narrated from Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, ʿUmar, ʿUthmān, ʿAlī, Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, Bilāl, Abū Dharr, Ibn Masʿūd, and a number of others.

Those who transmitted from him include Abū Laylā al-Kindī, al-Shaʿbī, Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, Salamah ibn Kuhayl, ʿAbdah ibn Abī Lubābah, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Rufayʿ, Maysarah Abū Ṣāliḥ, and many more besides.

It was also said that he was of the Prophet’s own generation in age. Nuʿaym ibn Maysarah related: Someone told me, on the authority of Suwayd ibn Ghafalah, that he said, “I am the Prophet’s peer; I was born in the Year of the Elephant.” Ziyād ibn Khaythamah, from ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī, reported that Suwayd ibn Ghafalah said, “I am two years younger than the Prophet.”

Aḥmad [ibn Ḥanbal] said: Hushaym narrated to us; Hilāl ibn Khabbāb informed us; Maysarah Abū Ṣāliḥ narrated to us, from Suwayd ibn Ghafalah, who said, “The Prophet’s muṣaddiq (1) came to us, so I sat with him and listened to the document he brought.”

Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ reported through Yūnus ibn Bukayr, through ʿAmr ibn Shimr, through Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, from Suwayd ibn Ghafalah, who said, “I saw the Prophet ﷺ: his eyelashes were long, his eyebrows met, his incisors shone brightly, and he possessed the finest hair Allah has ever placed on a human head.”