I remarked, “It seems that Mālik was taken in by al-Zuhrī’s dyed beard and so assumed him to be a young man.”

This report was transmitted by Abū Ismāʿīl al-Tirmidhī from Ismāʿīl.

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād al-Makkī said, “Sufyān related to us: I heard al-Zuhrī say, ‘I once thought I had secured a share of knowledge, until I sat with ʿUbaydullāh ibn ʿAbdillāh ibn ʿUtbah. Then I felt as though I had been in a mere ravine among many ravines.’”

Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad al-Farwī said, “I heard Mālik say, ‘I entered, together with Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah and a number of elders, to see Ibn Shihāb. Someone asked him about a hadith and he replied, “You abandoned knowledge until you have become like worn-out water skins (1) that have shriveled; only then did you seek it out. By Allah, you will never bring any good at all!”—and we laughed.’

Yūnus reported from Ibn Shihāb: ‘I kept the company of Ibn al-Musayyib until I heard from him nothing but discourse on the Return—that is, the Hereafter. I sat with ʿUbaydullāh, and I have never seen anyone more extraordinary than he. As for ʿUrwah, I found him to be an ocean that no buckets can muddy.’

Abū Ḍamrah narrated from ʿUbaydullāh ibn ʿUmar: ‘I saw Ibn Shihāb brought a written volume that he neither read himself nor had read to him. We would ask, “May we take this from you?” and he would answer, “Yes.” They would then take it, though he had not read it and it had not been read aloud to him.’

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Isḥāq reported from al-Zuhrī, who said, ‘I have never had to review a hadith, and I have never doubted a hadith except once. I asked my companion, and it turned out exactly as I had memorized it.’

Maʿmar said, ‘Al-Zuhrī did narrate from the mawālī—Sulaymān ibn Yasār, Ṭāwūs, al-Aʿraj, Nāfiʿ the client of Ibn ʿUmar, Nāfiʿ the client of Abū Qatādah, Ḥabīb the client of ʿUrwah, and Kathīr the client of Aflah.’

I said to him, ‘They claim that you do not transmit from the mawālī.’ He replied, ‘I have indeed narrated from them, but when I can find reports from the sons of the Emigrants and the Helpers, what need have I of others?’

I also heard him say, ‘People of Iraq, a hadith leaves us only a span long yet reaches you an arm’s length!’

ʿAṭāʾ ibn Muslim al-Khaffāf narrated from ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar, from al-Zuhrī, who said, ‘I narrated a hadith to ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn; when I had finished, he said, “You have done well—may Allah bless you—just so…”’

(1) A “shinān” is a water skin that has dried out and lost its suppleness.