He was born during the caliphate of ʿUthmān, in the year 34 AH; thereafter he travelled extensively and performed the pilgrimage.

He studied under Ibn ʿAbbās, Abū Hurayrah—if that link is sound—Abū Saʿīd, al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr, Jābir, Ibn ʿUmar, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ (though there is disagreement about this), and Ṭāwūs.

Indeed, he would even go to—and narrate from—ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, his own brother Hammām, ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, and a certain Fannaj the Yemeni—yet no one knows who this Fannaj was!

Those who transmitted from him include his two sons, ʿAbd Allāh and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān; ʿAmr ibn Dīnār; Simāk ibn al-Faḍl; ʿAwf al-Aʿrābī; ʿĀṣim ibn Rajāʾ ibn Ḥaywah; Yazīd ibn Yazīd ibn Jābir; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān ibn Khuthaym; Isrāʾīl Abū Mūsā; Hammām ibn Nāfiʿ Abū ʿAbd al-Razzāq; al-Mughīrah ibn Ḥakīm; al-Mundhir ibn al-Nuʿmān; his nephews ʿAqīl ibn Maʿqil and ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn Maʿqil; his grandson Idrīs ibn Sinān; Ṣāliḥ ibn ʿUbayd; ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn Ḥawrān; ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Khullaj; Dāwūd ibn Qays; ʿImrān ibn Hirbid Abū al-Hudhayl; ʿImrān ibn Khālid al-Ṣanʿānī; and many others besides them.

His narrations with fully connected chains (musnad) are few; the breadth of his learning lay rather in the isrāʾīliyyāt (reports derived from Jewish and Christian lore) and in material taken from the scriptures of the People of the Book.

Aḥmad said: “He was of Persian descent and held a position of nobility.” He also remarked: “Anyone in Yemen who bears the title dhī is regarded as noble; people say, ‘So-and-so has dhī, while so-and-so has no dhī.’”

Al-ʿIjli stated: “A Successor, reliable; he served as the judge of Ṣanʿāʾ.” Abū Zurʿah and al-Nasāʾī likewise declared him reliable.

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Azhar reported: “I heard Maslamah ibn Hammām ibn Maslamah ibn Hammām relate from his forefathers that Hammām, Wahb, ʿAbd Allāh, Maʿqil, and Maslamah—the sons of Munabbih—originally came from Khurāsān, from Herat. Munabbih was a native of Herat who departed during the reign of Kisrā…”