He transmitted reports from ʿUmar, ʿAlī, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr, though only a small number of his narrations are extant.

Among those who narrated from him are Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim, Murrah al-Ṭayyib, Tamīm ibn Salamah, al-Shaʿbī, Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, Ibn Sīrīn, and others.

Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn classified him as reliable.

Abū Isḥāq al-Shaybānī relates—on the authority of al-Shaʿbī—that ʿUmar wrote to Shurayḥ:

"When a case comes before you and its ruling is found in the Book of Allah, judge by it. If it is not in the Book of Allah but is found in the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, then judge by the Sunnah. If it is in neither of the two, rule according to what the leaders of guidance have ruled. If no precedent exists, you may choose: either exercise independent reasoning or consult me. Yet I consider your consulting me the safer course for you."

It is soundly reported that ʿUmar appointed him judge of Kūfa, and it is said that he retained that office for sixty years. He also served as judge in Baṣra for one year, and during the caliphate of Muʿāwiya he visited Damascus as part of a delegation. Because he judged in both Kūfa and Baṣra he was known as "the judge of the two metropolises." (1)

Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Abbār said: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muʿāwiya ibn Maysarah ibn Shurayḥ the judge narrated to us, saying that his father related from his grandfather Muʿāwiya, from Shurayḥ:

Shurayḥ came to the Prophet ﷺ, embraced Islam, and said, "O Messenger of Allah, I have a large household in Yemen."

The Prophet replied, "Bring them here."

He therefore set out with them, but when they arrived the Prophet ﷺ had already passed away. (2)

ʿAbbās narrated from Yaḥyā that Shurayḥ the judge was the son of Shuraḥbīl and that he was trustworthy.

Abū Maʿshar al-Barrāʾ—through Hishām, from Muḥammad—reported: I asked Shurayḥ, "What is your lineage?" He answered, "I am one of those upon whom Allah has bestowed the blessing of Islam, and my tribal affiliation counts me among Kindah."

It is also said that he left Yemen because his mother remarried after his father’s death, and out of embarrassment he departed. He was known as a poet and a skilled tracker of footprints.