ʿĀṣim said: Whenever ʿAbd Allāh caught sight of Abū Wāʾil he would remark, “The penitent one.”

He (ʿĀṣim) added: Abū Wāʾil was fond of ʿUthmān. (1)

Hammād ibn Zayd transmitted from ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdala who said:
Someone asked Abū Wāʾil, “Which of the two is dearer to you, ʿAlī or ʿUthmān?”
He replied, “ʿAlī used to be the dearer to me, but then ʿUthmān became dearer to me than ʿAlī.”

Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr reported from Ibn Maʿīn: “Abū Wāʾil is reliable; a man of his calibre is beyond question.”

Ibn Saʿd (2) said: “He was trustworthy and narrated a great many hadiths.”

Abū Muʿāwiyah, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, related that Abū Wāʾil once said to me:
“O Sulaymān, none of these governors of ours possesses even one of two qualities: they have neither the piety of the Muslims nor the intelligence of the pre-Islamic Arabs.”

ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd al-Ghaffār, on the authority of al-Aʿmash, reported that Shaqīq said to me, “How excellent is our Lord! Had we obeyed Him, He would never have opposed us.”

Isḥāq ibn Ṭāriq told us, Ibn Khalīl told us, al-Labbān told us, al-Ḥaddād told us, Abū Nuʿaym told us, Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad narrated to us, Bishr ibn Mūsā narrated to us, Khallād ibn Yaḥyā narrated to us, and Muʿarrif ibn Wāṣil said:
“We were in the company of Abū Wāʾil when people spoke about how near Allah is to His creation. He said,
‘Yes indeed. Allah — exalted be He — says: “Son of Adam, draw near to Me by a span and I shall draw near to you by a cubit; draw near to Me by a cubit and I shall draw near to you by an arm’s length; walk toward Me and I shall hasten toward you.”’” (3)