Ibn al-Mubārak said: “The Medinan jurists whose opinions people followed were seven: Ibn al-Musayyib, Sulaymān ibn Yasār, Sālim, al-Qāsim, ʿUrwah, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh, and Khārijah ibn Zayd. Whenever a legal question was put to them, they would all gather to examine it together, and no judge would render a verdict until it had been referred to them; they would look into it and then issue their decision.
Ibn Wahb narrated: Mālik told us, from Yazīd ibn Rumān, from Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allāh, that Sālim used to go to the market for his own needs. On one occasion he bought a woollen mantle, made his way with it to the mosque, and tossed it to ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. ʿAbd al-Malik kept it with him for a while and then said, “Will you not send someone to carry it for you?” Sālim replied, “No; I shall carry it myself.”
Mālik also told me: “Ibn ʿUmar would go out to the market and make purchases, and Sālim spent his whole life buying in the markets; he was among the finest people of his time.” (2)
Abū Saʿīd al-Hārithī transmitted, from al-ʿUtbī, from his father: Sālim came in to Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik wearing coarse, threadbare clothes. Sulaymān kept welcoming and honouring him until he seated him beside himself on his couch, while ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was also in the assembly.
A man of low rank said to ʿUmar, “Could your uncle not have worn finer garments than these to appear before the Commander of the Believers?!” The speaker himself was dressed in costly attire of considerable value.
ʿUmar replied, “I have not seen the clothes my uncle is wearing lower him to your station, nor have I seen your clothes raise you to the station my uncle holds.” (3)