—Wathilah ibn al-Asqaʿ.

Abu ʿIsa al-Tirmidhi said: He heard from Wathilah, Anas, and Abu Hind.

It is said that he heard from no Companion other than these three.

Yunus ibn Bukayr, citing Ibn Ishaq, reported: I heard Makḥūl say, “I travelled the whole earth in search of knowledge.”

I say: this statement of his is intended as rhetorical exaggeration, not literal fact.

Abu Wahb al-Kalaʿi—his name is ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUbayd—according to what Yahya ibn Ḥamzah al-Qadi narrated from him, from Makḥūl, said:

“I was set free in Egypt, and I left no branch of knowledge there without, to my mind, mastering it. Then I went to Iraq, and I left no branch of knowledge there without, to my mind, mastering it. Then I came to Medina and left no branch of knowledge there without mastering it. After that I came to Syria and sifted through its learning, all the while asking about al-nafal (the discretionary share of the spoils). I found no one able to inform me about it until I passed by an elderly man of Banū Tamīm named Ziyad ibn Jariyah, who was sitting on a chair. I questioned him,

and he said, ‘Habib ibn Maslamah narrated to me:

“I witnessed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ allot one quarter of the spoils at the start of the campaign and one third upon the return.”’ (1)

Ibrahim ibn al-ʿAlaʾ, from his father, from al-Zuhri, said:

“The scholars are four: Saʿid ibn al-Musayyab in Medina, al-Shaʿbi in Kufah, al-Hasan in Basra, and Makḥūl in Syria.”