Al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Faḍālah—through ʿUqayl—said:
“I saw on Ibn Shihāb’s signet-ring the words: ‘Muḥammad asks Allah for well-being.’

Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mundhir al-Ḥizāmī reported: Dāwūd ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us:
I heard Mālik say, ‘Ibn Shihāb was among the most generous of people. When fortune finally reached him, one of his freedmen admonished him, saying, “You have seen the hardship you once endured; be mindful now and hold on to your wealth.” He replied, “A noble man is not reshaped by trials.”’

Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād related: Muḥammad ibn Thawr told us, from Maʿmar, from al-Zuhrī, who said, ‘Reciting to a scholar and listening from him are equivalent—if Allah wills.’

ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar said, ‘I handed Ibn Shihāb a book; after examining it he said, “Transmit it on my authority.”’

Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Sufyān al-Qaysarānī reported: al-Firyābī narrated to us; I heard al-Thawrī say:
‘I went to al-Zuhrī, but he received me coolly. I said, “Would you like it if you visited the elders and they treated you this way?” He answered, “Stay where you are.” He went inside, brought out a book and said, “Take this and report it from me.” Yet I never transmitted a single word from him.’

Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, said, ‘Repeating a hadith is harder than moving a boulder.’

ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAṭāʾ reported: al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUmārah said:
‘I visited al-Zuhrī after he had abandoned hadith-narration and found him at his doorway. I said, “If you are willing, relate hadith to me.” He replied, “Do you not know that I have given up narrating?” I said, “Either you narrate to me or I will narrate to you.” He said, “Then narrate to me.” I said, “Al-Ḥakam related to me—from Yaḥyā ibn al-Jazzār—who heard ʿAlī (may Allah honor him) say: ‘Allah did not lay a charge upon the ignorant to learn until He first laid a charge upon the learned to teach.’” Thereupon he narrated forty hadiths to me.’

Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān said, ‘A mursal (unattached) report of al-Zuhrī is worse than the mursal of anyone else, because he was a meticulous memorizer: whenever he could name a transmitter he did so, and he omits only the one he does not wish to name.’