al-Zuhrī, al-Madanī, and a client (mawla) of Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf.

He related hadith from Ibn ʿUmar, Anas, Umm Saʿd bint ʿAmr al-Jumaḥiyyah, and Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allah; as well as from his patron Ḥumayd, ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, Nāfiʿ ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, Ṭāwūs, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, Saʿīd ibn Salamah al-Azraqī, Salmān al-Aghar, al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, Abū Busrah al-Ghifārī—an obscure Successor—and many others besides.

Among those who narrated from him were Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, Ibn Jurayj, Ibn ʿAjlān, Mālik, al-Layth, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Darāwardī, the two Sufyāns, and a great many more; the last of them to die was Abū Ḍamrah al-Laythī.

Ibn Saʿd said, “He was reliable, prolific in hadith, and devout.” Ibn al-Madīnī likewise stated, “Reliable.” It is reported from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal that he said, “He is among the trustworthy; people seek cure through his hadith, and rain descends from the heavens at the mere mention of him.” ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad related from his father: “Reliable—one of Allah’s choicest, righteous servants.” Abū Ḥātim, al-ʿIjli, and al-Nasāʾī all declared him “trustworthy.”

Al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Ghassān said, “He affirmed belief in the divine decree (qadar).” Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah remarked, “He is solid, trustworthy, and famed for worship,” adding that he heard ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allah say: “Safwān ibn Sulaym would pray on the rooftop on bitterly cold nights so that sleep would not overtake him.”

Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad reported from Mālik ibn Anas: “Safwān ibn Sulaym used to pray in winter on the rooftop and in summer in the innermost part of the house, keeping himself awake through both heat and cold until dawn. Then he would say, ‘This is Safwān’s utmost effort, and You know best.’ His feet would swell until he almost collapsed from standing in night prayer, and green veins would show beneath the skin.”