Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “He is reliable, and when it comes to narrations from Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī he is dearer to me than ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal.”
Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, al-Nasāʾī, and others likewise stated, “Reliable.”
Al-ʿIjlī said, “Reliable—one of the very best people of Baṣrah.”
Ibn Saʿd remarked, “He was one of the devoted, diligent worshippers, prolific in hadith, and reliable. He would pray throughout the night with the same ablution he had made for the late ʿIshāʾ prayer. He and his son used to roam the mosques at night, praying once in this mosque and once in that until dawn. Sulaymān also had a special affection for ʿAlī (may Allah be pleased with him).”
Nawfal ibn Muṭahhir transmitted from Ibn al-Mubārak, from Sufyān, who said, “The preservers of Baṣrah are three: Sulaymān al-Taymī, ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal, and Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind—and ʿĀṣim is the most accurate of them.”
Ibn ʿUlayyah likewise said, “Sulaymān al-Taymī is among the preservers of Baṣrah.”
Ibn al-Madīnī narrated from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, who said, “I never sat with anyone who felt more awe of Allah than Sulaymān al-Taymī, and I heard him say, ‘They took Jābir’s booklet to al-Ḥasan and he narrated it—or, he said: he kept it. Then they took it to Qatādah and he kept it. When they brought it to me, I did not reject it.’”
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: My father was asked, “Whose transmissions from Abū ʿUthmān are preferable to you—Sulaymān al-Taymī’s or ʿĀṣim’s?” He answered, “Sulaymān’s.” He also said, “Al-Taymī does not reach the rank of Ayyūb, Yūnus, and Ibn ʿAwn; they are senior to him.”
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā reported that al-Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān told him, “Were you not one of my own people, I would not have related this to you about my father: for forty years my father fasted every other day and performed the dawn prayer with the same ablution he had used for the late ʿIshāʾ.”
Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd narrated from Raqabah ibn Maṣqalah, who said, “I saw the Lord of Might and Majesty in a dream, and He said, ‘I shall surely honor the resting place of Sulaymān al-Taymī; he prayed the dawn prayer for Me with the ablution of the night prayer for forty years.’”