He related hadith from Ibn ʿAbbas, Abu Saʿid al-Khudri, Ibn ʿUmar, and Anas b. Malik, as well as from al-Aswad, Saʿid b. Jubayr, ʿAtaʾ, Tawus, and a number of others.

Some scholars maintain that he never met Ibn ʿAbbas—and Allah knows best.

Among those who transmitted from him are ʿUmarah b. Abi Hafsah, Abu Saʿd al-Baqqal (1), Juyaybir b. Saʿid, Muqatil, ʿAli b. al-Hakam, Abu Ruq (2) ʿAtiyyah, Abu Janab al-Kalbi Yahya b. Abi Hayyah, Nahshal b. Saʿid, ʿUmar b. al-Rammāḥ, ʿAbd al-ʿAziz b. Abi Rawwad, Qurrah b. Khalid, and others besides them.

Ahmad b. Hanbal, Yahya b. Maʿin, and fellow critics declared him trustworthy, while his narrations are cited in the Sunan collections but not in the two Ṣaḥīḥs. Yahya b. Saʿid, however, graded him weak, and it was further said that he practiced tadlis (concealing his immediate authorities).

Another report states that he served as headmaster of an enormous elementary school with three thousand boys; he would ride a donkey and make his rounds among the pupils. He possessed broad expertise in Qurʾanic exegesis and historical narratives.

Sufyan al-Thawri remarked, “Al-Ḍaḥḥāk used to teach and would accept no wage.”

Shuʿbah narrated from Mushash: “I asked al-Ḍaḥḥāk, ‘Did you meet Ibn ʿAbbas?’ He replied, ‘No.’”

Shuʿbah likewise related from ʿAbd al-Malik b. Maysarah who said, “Al-Ḍaḥḥāk never met Ibn ʿAbbas; he only met Saʿid b. Jubayr in Rayy and took tafsir from him.” (3)

Yahya al-Qaṭṭan observed, “Shuʿbah used to deny categorically that al-Ḍaḥḥāk had ever met Ibn ʿAbbas,” and he added, “In our estimation, al-Ḍaḥḥāk is weak.”