—he said: “I transmit nothing in smaller quantity than poetry; yet, if I wished, I could declaim verses to you for an entire month without repeating a single line.” (1)

On one occasion the chain of transmission goes through Nūḥ, who said: “from Yūnus and Wādiʿ.”

Maḥmūd ibn Ghailān reported: I heard Abū Usāmah say, “In his era ʿUmar was the foremost authority among the people, a man of encyclopedic knowledge; after him, in his own time, came Ibn ʿAbbās; then, in his time, al-Shaʿbī; after him, al-Thawrī in his era; and after him, Yaḥyā ibn Ādam.” (2)

Shurayk, on the authority of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmayr, said: “Ibn ʿUmar passed by al-Shaʿbī while he was reciting the accounts of the Prophet’s military campaigns. Ibn ʿUmar remarked, ‘It is as though this man had been present with us, for he preserves them better and knows them more thoroughly than I do.’” (3)

Ashʿab ibn Sawwār, from Ibn Sīrīn, said: “When I arrived in Kūfah, al-Shaʿbī was presiding over a great study circle, even though many Companions were still alive at the time.” (4)

Ibn ʿUyaynah, from Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, said: “I have never sat with anyone more knowledgeable than al-Shaʿbī.”

ʿĀṣim ibn Sulaymān likewise said: “I have never seen anyone better informed about the hadith of the people of Kūfah, Baṣrah, the Ḥijāz, and the other regions than al-Shaʿbī.” (4)

Abū Muʿāwiyah related: I heard al-Aʿmash say that al-Shaʿbī remarked, “Are you not amazed at this one-eyed man? He comes to me at night to ask questions, and then issues legal verdicts by day”—meaning Ibrāhīm (al-Nakhaʿī). (5)

Abū Shihāb, from al-Ṣalt ibn Bahrām, said: “No one reached al-Shaʿbī’s stature in frequently declaring, ‘I do not know.’” (6)