Through this same chain, Maḥmūd ibn Ghaylān narrated to us: “I heard Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī say:
‘Abū Isḥāq met the following Companions: ʿAlī, Ibn ʿAbbās, Ibn ʿUmar, Muʿāwiyah, ʿAdī ibn Ḥātim, al-Barāʾ, Zayd ibn Arqam, Jābir ibn Samurah, Ḥārithah ibn Wahb, Ḥubshī ibn Junādah, Abū Juḥayfah, al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr, Sulaymān ibn Surad, ʿAbd Allah ibn Yazīd, Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allah, Dhū al-Jawshan, ʿUmārah ibn Ruwaybah, al-Ashʿath ibn Qays, al-Mughīrah, Usāmah ibn Zayd, ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith, ʿAmr ibn Ḥurayth, Rāfiʿ ibn Khadīj, al-Miswar ibn Makhramah, Salamah ibn Qays al-Ashjaʿī, Suraqah ibn Mālik, and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abzā—may Allah be pleased with them all.’
Ibn ʿUyaynah said, “Abū Isḥāq used to apply dye.”
Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn stated, “The most reliable of Abū Isḥāq’s pupils are Shuʿbah and al-Thawrī.”
Shurayk remarked, “Abū Isḥāq was born three years before the end of ʿUthmān’s caliphate.”
Mughīrah said, “Whenever I saw Abū Isḥāq I was reminded of the earliest generation.”
Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd related: “It used to be said, ‘Whoever has sat with Abū Isḥāq has sat with ʿAlī.’”
Imām Aḥmad said, “Abū Isḥāq married the wife of al-Ḥārith al-Aʿwar, and his books consequently passed into Abū Isḥāq’s hands.”
Shabābah, transmitting from Shuʿbah, said, “Abū Isḥāq heard only four hadiths from al-Ḥārith”—meaning that Abū Isḥāq was known to practice tadlīs (concealing an intermediary in the chain).
Shuʿbah reported from Abū Isḥāq that he said, “I testified before Shurayḥ concerning a bequest, and he accepted my testimony alone.”
Shuʿbah was asked, “Did Abū Isḥāq hear anything from Mujāhid?”
He replied, “Why would he need him? His hadith is better than that of Mujāhid, al-Ḥasan, or Ibn Sīrīn.”