of means. Al-Manṣūr later appointed him judge, yet his manner of living did not change. When people remarked on this he said, “When a man’s inner self is one, wealth cannot alter him.”
Aḥmad al-ʿIjlī said—quoting Yazīd ibn Hārūn:
“I asked Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, ‘How many ḥadiths have you memorised?’
He replied, ‘Six hundred—seven hundred.’”
I (the author) say: This shows the weakness of the previous statement transmitted from Yazīd; Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd never possessed three thousand ḥadiths at all.
Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān said, “He is preferred to al-Zuhrī, for al-Zuhrī’s narrations are subject to disagreement, whereas those of Yaḥyā are not.”
As for ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, he said, “He has about three hundred ḥadiths,” apparently referring to the musnad reports traced back to the Prophet or to the narrations for which he is famous.
Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb related: “I heard Ḥammād ibn Zayd say, ‘I keep no one’s book with me, but if I were to keep one I should like it to be that of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī.’”
I say: He died at al-Hāshimiyya, near Kūfa, in 143 AH, at a little over seventy years of age.
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad al-Faqīh informed us in his book; ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad informed us; Hibat Allah ibn Muḥammad al-Shaybānī informed us; Abū Ṭālib Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ghaylān informed us; Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī informed us; al-Ḥārith ibn Muḥammad reported to us; Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd informed us, from ʿUbayd Allah ibn Zahr, who said he heard Abū Saʿīd al-Ruʿaynī relate from ʿAbd Allah ibn Mālik, who said he heard ʿUqba ibn ʿĀmir say:
that his sister had vowed to walk to the House barefoot and without a head-cover. ʿUqba mentioned this to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he said, “Tell your sister to ride, to cover herself, and to fast three days (1).”
This is a singular, isolated narration.