and Anas, Ibn ʿIyād al-Laythī, and a great many others.

He was counted among the foremost masters of memorisation, though an illness later struck him that weakened his recall.

Al-Tirmidhī relates that Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah said, “We used to regard Suhayl ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ as firmly established in hadith.”

Aḥmad remarked, “How sound are his narrations!”

Abū Ṭālib said: I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about Suhayl and about Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr. He replied, “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd said, ‘Muḥammad is dearer to me.’” He then added, “But that does not carry much weight; Suhayl is the more firmly grounded in their estimation.”

Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn observed, “The narrations of Suhayl and of al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān are almost on the same level, and neither of them constitutes decisive proof.” This was reported from him by ʿAbbās al-Dūrī.

Aḥmad al-ʿIjlī said, “Suhayl and his brother ʿAbbād are both reliable.”

Ibn Abī Ḥātim records: I asked Abū Zurʿah, “Do you prefer Suhayl or al-ʿAlāʾ?” He answered, “Suhayl is more firmly established and better known.”

Abū Ḥātim said, “His hadith is to be written down but not treated as proof; nevertheless, he is preferable to me over al-ʿAlāʾ and over ʿAmr ibn Abī ʿAmr.”

Al-Nasāʾī and others stated, “There is no harm in him.”

Ibn ʿAdī remarked, “Suhayl left written collections from which the leading imams transmitted; in my view he is sound, with nothing objectionable.”

Ibn Maʿīn said, “Sumay is better than he.”

I say: Sumay is among the transmitters of both Ṣaḥīḥs, whereas Suhayl is not.

On another occasion Ibn Maʿīn declared, “He is trustworthy—and so are his two brothers, ʿAbbād and Ṣāliḥ.”

Among Suhayl’s rarer narrations, through his father from Abū Hurayrah, is the hadith: “Whoever kills a lizard in …”