Al-Walīd ibn Muslim said: “He (Bilāl ibn Saʿd) was the imam of the Great Mosque. Whenever he pronounced the opening takbīr, his voice could be heard all the way from al-Awzāʿ (1), and one could still make out his recitation from the hill where the money-changers’ quarter now stands—though in those days no such buildings existed.

Al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn ʿUthmān related: “I saw him delivering exhortations in the prayer ground, standing beside the pulpit, and he would continue until the caliph came out.”

Al-Awzāʿī said: “I heard him declare, ‘By Allah, it is sin enough for us that Allah makes us disdain this world while we continue to crave it.’”

Al-Awzāʿī also recounted: “The people once went out in Damascus to pray for rain, and Bilāl ibn Saʿd was with them. He stood and said, ‘O assembly of those present, do you not acknowledge your wrongdoing?’
‘Indeed,’ we replied.
He then supplicated: ‘O Allah, You have said, “No blame rests upon those who do good” (Q 9:91). We have confessed our wrongdoing, so pardon us and send us rain.’
That very day we were granted rain.”

Bilāl died a little after the year 110 AH.

Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Gharrāfī at the frontier informed us; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad the ḥāfiẓ informed us; Abū Bakr ibn al-Zāghūnī informed us; Abū Naṣr al-Zaynabī informed us; Abū Ṭāhir al-Dhahabī informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Abī Samīnah narrated to us; Ṣāliḥ ibn Bayān narrated to us; Furāt ibn al-Sāʾib narrated to us from Maymūn ibn Mihrān, from Ibn ʿAbbās concerning the verse, “Adorn yourselves at every place of worship” (Q 7:31). He explained: “It means to pray in one’s sandals. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ prayed in his sandals; then he removed them, and the people removed theirs. When he finished the prayer he asked, ‘Why did you take off your sandals?’
They answered, ‘We saw you remove yours, so we removed ours.’”