ʿAbbās reported from Ibn Maʿīn:
“The most reliable transmitters of al-Zuhrī’s material are Mālik, Maʿmar, Yūnus, ʿUqayl, Shuʿayb, and Ibn ʿUyaynah.”

ʿUthmān al-Dāramī said: I asked Yaḥyā, “Do you prefer Yūnus or ʿUqayl?” He replied, “Yūnus is trustworthy, and ʿUqayl is trustworthy; he is distinguished in what he narrates from al-Zuhrī.”

Aḥmad ibn Abī Khaythamah narrated from Yaḥyā who said, “Maʿmar and Yūnus are both well-versed in the narrations of al-Zuhrī.”

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm said: I heard ʿAlī say, “The most accurate transmitters from al-Zuhrī are Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah and Ziyād ibn Saʿd, then Mālik, Maʿmar, and Yūnus—from his notebook.”

Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Miṣrī said, “We do not put anyone ahead of Yūnus with respect to al-Zuhrī. Whenever al-Zuhrī arrived in Aylah he would stay with him, and when he travelled on to Medina, Yūnus would ride alongside him.”

Ibn ʿAmmār al-Mawṣilī said, “Yūnus was thoroughly acquainted with al-Zuhrī’s legal opinions.”

Al-ʿIjlī and al-Nasāʾī said, “He is reliable.”

Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah said, “Sound in his ḥadīths and knowledgeable regarding al-Zuhrī.”

Abū Zurʿah said, “There is nothing wrong with him.”

Ibn Khirāsh said, “Truthful.”

Ibn Saʿd said, “Pleasing in ḥadīth, prolific, yet not a decisive proof; at times he brings something objectionable.”

I say: The authors of the Ṣaḥīḥ collections have adduced his reports both as primary evidence and in corroboration.

Ibn Saʿd said, “At times he brings something objectionable.”

I say: According to most leading preservers, that is not considered objectionable (1); rather, it is merely singular.

Abū Saʿīd ibn Yūnus said, “I asked al-Qāsim and Sālim; they asserted that he died in Upper Egypt in the year 152 AH.”

Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr said, “He died in the year fifty-something.”

Al-Bukhārī and al-Mufaḍḍal al-Ghallābī said, “He passed away in 159 AH.”

Muḥammad ibn ʿAzīz al-Aylī said, “He died in the year 160 AH.”