Jaʿfar al-Firyābī informed us; ʿUbayd Allāh al-Qawārīrī narrated to us; Ḥammād ibn Zayd related to us—on the authority of Ayyūb—who said:
“ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz came in to visit Abū Qilābah while he was ill and said to him, ‘Abū Qilābah, show fortitude, so that the hypocrites may not rejoice at our misfortune.’ (1)

Al-Walīd ibn Muslim also transmitted to us; Ibn Jābir said:
People said to ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, ‘This man is Abū Qilābah.’
He asked, ‘What has brought him here?’
They replied, ‘He sought refuge from al-Ḥajjāj; the latter wanted to appoint him as judge, so he (ʿAbd al-Malik) wrote to al-Ḥajjāj instructing him to treat Abū Qilābah kindly.’
Abū Qilābah then said, ‘I will not leave Syria.’ (2)

Abū Ḥātim said, ‘No form of tadlīs (concealed transmission) is known from Abū Qilābah.’ (3)

I say: What this means is that when he transmits something from ʿUmar or Abū Hurayrah, for example, in a mursal form, he simply does not know from whom he heard it. This is different from the tadlīs practised by al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, for he would take reports from all sorts of people and then drop them from the chain, such as his disciple ʿAlī ibn Zayd.

It is also narrated that Abū Qilābah became extremely thirsty while fasting. He supplicated, whereupon Allah honoured him: a cloud shaded him and rained upon his body until his thirst was quenched. (4)

Salamah ibn Wāṣil said: Abū Qilābah — may Allah have mercy on him — died in Syria. He bequeathed his books to Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī, and they were delivered to him. (5)

Ayyūb said: When the books reached me, I informed Ibn Sīrīn and asked, ‘May I transmit from them?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ Then he added, ‘I neither order you to do so nor forbid you.’ (6)