as well as al-Layth, Ibn Lahiʿah, Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb, Ḍimām ibn Ismāʿīl, Ḥajjāj ibn Furāfiṣah, Jābir ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ḥaḍramī, al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Faḍālah, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Salmān al-Ḥajarī, Rishdīn ibn Saʿd, Nāfiʿ ibn Yazīd, and many others.
Aḥmad and al-Nasāʾī declared him reliable.
Abū Ḥātim said, “ʿUqayl is dearer to me than Yūnus.”
Abū Zurʿah said, “Trustworthy, truthful.”
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Farrāʾ related: I heard Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā ask Isḥāq—while Isḥāq was reading to him the Book of Jihād—“Which of the two do you regard as more firmly grounded, ʿUqayl or Yūnus?” Isḥāq replied, “ʿUqayl is a ḥāfiẓ (a master memorizer), whereas Yūnus is simply a man with a book.”
Ibn Saʿd said, “ʿUqayl lived in Aylah and he was reliable.”
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: My father was asked about ʿUqayl and Maʿmar. He answered, “ʿUqayl is the more accurate; he possessed a written collection. Al-Zuhrī used to stay in Aylah, where he owned an estate, and ʿUqayl would write from him there.”
ʿAbbās transmitted from Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn that he said, “The most precise transmitters from al-Zuhrī are: Mālik, Maʿmar, Yūnus, ʿUqayl, Shuʿayb, and Ibn ʿUyaynah.”
Al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Ghassān reported that al-Mājishūn said, “ʿUqayl served as a police officer here in Medina and died in Egypt in 141 AH.”
Muḥammad ibn ʿAzīz al-Aylī said, “He died in 142 AH.”
Abū al-Ṭāhir ibn al-Sarḥ transmitted from his maternal uncle Abū Rajāʾ that he died in 144 AH.
Ibn Yūnus said, “He passed away suddenly in Fusṭāṭ during the epidemic of the maghāfīr (1) in 144 AH.” (2)
ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim al-Ṭāʾī informed us; Abū al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥarastānī read it to us while I was present; Abū al-Ḥasan ibn al-Muslim informed us; al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṭalāb informed us; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad informed us; al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd ibn al-Muṭabbaqī in Baghdad informed us; Muḥammad