Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways said: My father related to me—he said: “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn Qays ibn ʿAmr ibn Sahl ibn Thaʿlabah narrated to us.”

Ibn Saʿd reported: Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar informed us, saying, “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn Qays ibn ʿAmr ibn Sahl al-Najjārī died in al-Hāshimiyyah. He served there as judge for Abū Jaʿfar, in the year 143 AH.”

ʿĀrim said: Ḥammād narrated to us, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, who said: “The upright, trustworthy custodian of all entrusted to him—Abū Saʿīd Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd—related to me.”

I say: Most people referred to him by this kunya.

Abū Yaḥyā Ṣāʿiqah transmitted from Ibn al-Madīnī that his kunya was Abū Naṣr.

Sulaymān ibn Bilāl said: “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd fell into straitened circumstances; severe hardship struck him and debt overwhelmed him. While he was in that state, a letter arrived from Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr appointing him as judge. He placed his family in my care and said to me, ‘By Allah, I am setting out while knowing nothing at all.’

“When he reached Iraq he wrote to me: ‘I told you those words, and—by Allah—the very first two litigants who sat before me presented an issue I had never heard of. When this letter of mine reaches you, ask Rabīʿah ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān about it, write back to me with what he says, and do not let him know.’”

This report is objectionable, for Rabīʿah had already died.

It was transmitted by Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mundhir al-Ḥizāmī, from Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah—a descendant of Abū Bakr—from Sulaymān, who added:

“When I set out with him for Iraq, I accompanied him. The first thing that met him was a funeral procession; my face changed, so he asked, ‘Has your expression altered?’ I replied, ‘O Allah, no portent but Your portent.’ He said, ‘By Allah, if your portent proves true, my affairs will surely revive.’ He continued on, and no more than two months passed before he had settled his debts and obtained prosperity.”

ʿAbdullāh ibn Bishr al-Ṭālaqānī said: I heard Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal say, “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī is the most reliable of people.”