ʿUthmān—may Allah be pleased with him—or even before that.

He heard from Zayd ibn Thābit, ʿĀʾishah, Abū Hurayrah, Zayd ibn Arqam, and Ibn ʿAbbās.

He kept close company with Ibn ʿAbbās for a considerable time and is counted among his foremost disciples.

He also transmitted from Jābir, Surāqah ibn Mālik, Ṣafwān ibn Umayyah, Ibn ʿUmar, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr;
from Ziyād al-Aʿjam, Ḥujr al-Madarī, and a number of others.

He related one report from Muʿādh in mursal form.

Those who narrated from him include ʿAṭāʾ, Mujāhid, several of his contemporaries, his son ʿAbd Allāh, al-Ḥasan ibn Muslim, Ibn Shihāb, Ibrāhīm ibn Maysarah, Abū al-Zubayr al-Makkī, Sulaymān al-Taymī, Sulaymān ibn Mūsā al-Dimashqī, Qays ibn Saʿd al-Makkī, ʿIkrimah ibn ʿAmmār, Usāmah ibn Zayd al-Laythī, ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Maysarah, ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Najīḥ, Ḥanẓalah ibn Abī Sufyān, and many others.

His narrations appear in all the major Islamic collections and are accepted as authoritative by unanimous agreement.

ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ transmitted from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said, “I truly believe that Ṭāwūs is one of the people of Paradise.”

Qays ibn Saʿd said, “Among us he is like Ibn Sīrīn among the people of Basra.”

Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah—reporting from Ibn Abī Najīḥ—recounted:

Mujāhid said to Ṭāwūs, “I saw you, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, praying inside the Kaʿbah while the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, stood at its door saying to you, ‘Remove your covering and recite aloud.’”

Ṭāwūs replied, “Be quiet; do not let anyone hear this from you.”

He (Ibn Abī Najīḥ) added, “Then it seemed to me that he became quite talkative—meaning, overjoyed by the dream.”

ʿAbd al-Razzāq related—from Dāwūd ibn Ibrāhīm—that a lion once held the people up on the pilgrimage route for an entire night. The travellers pressed against one another, and when the pre-dawn hours arrived, the lion left them, so they dismounted