Al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad said, “Ayyūb once mis-pronounced a single letter, whereupon he exclaimed, ‘I seek Allah’s forgiveness.’

With this same chain: Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us; Ḥammād ibn Zayd narrated to us; a man informed me that he saw Ayyūb standing and weeping between the graves of al-Ḥasan and Muḥammad, turning his gaze at times to one and at times to the other.

With this same chain: Aḥmad narrated to us; Ḥammād narrated to us; Ayyūb narrated to us, saying, “I saw al-Ḥasan in my sleep, fettered, and I saw Ibn Sīrīn, also shackled, inside a prison.” He added, “It seemed that this pleased him.”

Makhlad ibn al-Ḥusayn reported that Ayyūb used to say, “No servant has ever been truly sincere yet still loved fame.”

Muʾammal narrated from Shuʿbah, who said, “Whoever wants the hadiths of Ayyūb should go to Ḥammād ibn Zayd.”

I say: He spoke the truth, for Ḥammād is the most reliable of people regarding Ayyūb.

Ḥammād also said, “No one was dearer to Ibn Sīrīn than Ayyūb.”

Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd said, “I have never seen anyone more earnest in advising the public than Ayyūb and al-Ḥasan.”

Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb narrated from Ḥammād ibn Zayd that Ayyūb was once in an assembly when emotion overtook him, so he began blowing his nose, saying, “How severe this cold is!”

Ibn ʿAwn said, “When Ibn Sīrīn died, we asked, ‘Who is there after him?’ We replied, ‘Ayyūb.’”

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd the scribe said, “Ayyūb was trustworthy, firmly grounded in ḥadīth, comprehensive, of abundant knowledge, an authority, upright.”

Abū Ḥātim, when asked about Ayyūb, replied, “Trustworthy; one does not even ask about someone like him.”

I say: In precision he reaches the utmost limit.

Ibn al-Madīnī said, “He has about eight hundred hadiths.”

Ibn ʿUlayyah said, “We used to say that Ayyūb’s hadiths numbered two thousand, and very few of them have escaped me.”

Ibn al-Madīnī was asked about the transmitters from Nāfiʿ, and he replied, “Ayyūb, with his excellence, and Mālik …”