Abu Sinan narrated from Habib ibn Abi Thabit:
“Five scholars once gathered in my house—such a group will never assemble again: ʿAtaʾ, Tawus, Mujahid, Saʿid ibn Jubayr, and Ikrimah. Mujahid and Saʿid then turned to Ikrimah and began putting matters of tafsir to him; there was not a single verse they cited except that he explained it to them. When their questions were exhausted, he went on, saying, ‘Such-and-such a verse was revealed about such-and-such, and such-and-such a verse about such-and-such.’ Later that night they all entered the bathhouse.”
Yahya al-Qattan said, “The leading students of Ibn ʿAbbas were six: Mujahid, Tawus, ʿAtaʾ, Saʿid, Ikrimah, and Jabir ibn Zayd.”
Ibn ʿUyaynah related: “I heard Ayyub say, ‘If I told you that al-Hasan refrained from much tafsir from the moment Ikrimah arrived in Basrah until he left, I would be telling the truth.’”
Al-Thawri said, “Take tafsir from four: Saʿid ibn Jubayr, Mujahid, Ikrimah, and al-Dahhak.”
Ayyub reported that Ikrimah once remarked, “I go out to the marketplace, hear a man utter a single word, and 50 avenues of knowledge open up for me.”
Yahya ibn Ayyub said: “Ibn Jurayj asked me, ‘Did Ikrimah come to you?’ I replied, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Did you write down what you heard from him?’ I answered, ‘No.’ He replied, ‘Then two-thirds of knowledge has escaped you.’”
Abu Maslamah Saʿid ibn Yazid said: “I heard Ikrimah say, ‘Why do you not ask me your questions—have you gone bankrupt?’”
Umayyah ibn Shibl, narrating from Maʿmar from Ayyub, said: “When Ikrimah arrived, the people crowded around him until he had to climb onto the roof of a house.”
Maʿmar also reported from Ayyub: “I had intended to travel to Ikrimah in some distant land, but while I was in the marketplace of Basrah I saw a man riding a donkey. They said to me, ‘That is Ikrimah.’ The people gathered around him, so I approached but could not think of a single question—my prepared issues slipped away. I stood beside his donkey while the people questioned him and I memorised his answers.”
And Ayyub—when asked about Ikrimah—said, “Had I not deemed him reliable, I would never have written from him.”