and Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abzā, ʿAlqamah ibn Qays, Kurayb, Mujāhid, and a number of others.
Those who narrated from him include: his son Yaḥyā ibn Salamah, Manṣūr, al-Aʿmash, Hilāl ibn Yasāf—who was actually one of his own teachers—al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab, Zayd ibn Abī Unaysah, Shuʿbah, al-Thawrī, al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Ḥayy and his brother ʿAlī ibn Ṣāliḥ, Misʿar, ʿUqayl ibn Khālid, and many others.
ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said, “He has two hundred and fifty hadith.”
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “He was precise in hadith.”
Aḥmad al-ʿIjlī said, “A Successor (tābiʿī), reliable, firmly grounded in hadith; he had a slight inclination toward the Shiʿa, and his narrations are fewer than two hundred hadith.”
Abu Ḥātim said, “Trustworthy and accurate.”
Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah said, “Trustworthy, steadfast despite his Shiʿi leaning.”
Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd reported: “When Shuʿbah arrived in Basra, the people said, ‘Tell us about the reliable members of your circle.’ He replied, ‘If I narrate to you from the reliable ones among my companions, I can only mention a small number from this group of Shiʿites: al-Ḥakam, Salamah ibn Kuhayl, Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, and Manṣūr.’”
Khalaf ibn Ḥawshab narrated from Ṭalḥah ibn Muṣarrif, who said, “Whenever we gathered anywhere, this short man would take the lead”—meaning Salamah ibn Kuhayl.
Ibn al-Mubārak, citing Sufyān, said: “Salamah ibn Kuhayl narrated to us; he was a pillar among the pillars,” and Sufyān clenched his fist to show his strength.
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī said, “No one in Kūfah was more reliable than four men: Manṣūr, Abū Ḥuṣayn, Salamah ibn Kuhayl, and ʿAmr ibn Murrah.”
Yaḥyā ibn Salamah stated, “My father was born in 47 AH and died on the Day of ʿĀshūrāʾ in 121 AH.”
Several other scholars agreed on this date. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal added, “He died in 121 AH, on one of the very last days of the year.”
Al-Haytham said