Ishaq al-Kawsaj quoted Ibn Maʿin as saying, “He is reliable.”
Abu Zurʿah said, “Reliable, trustworthy.”
Abu Hatim said, “Reliable—before he became confused—and he was the most knowledgeable of people concerning the hadith of Qatadah.”
Ahmad ibn Hanbal said, “Whoever heard from him before the defeat, his report is sound.”
He meant the defeat of the column (nawbah) of Ibrahim ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Hasan (1), which took place in Shawwal of the year 145 AH.
Yazid ibn Harun said, “I met Ibn Abi ʿArubah long before 140 AH, and I saw him again in 142 AH and found him changed.”
Yahya ibn Saʿid al-Qattan likewise declared him reliable.
Abu Nuʿaym said, “I wrote down two hadiths from him after his memory had become muddled; then I rose and left him.”
Muhammad ibn al-Muthanna said: al-Ansari narrated to us:
“I entered, together with ʿAbd Allah ibn Salamah al-Aftas, upon Saʿid ibn Abi ʿArubah after his condition had altered. He kept looking at our faces but did not recognise us.”
Muhammad ibn Salam al-Jumahi said, “Ibn Abi ʿArubah used to joke while narrating; when his own recall pleased him he would say:
‘He pounded you in the mortar like the seeds of qilqil…’ (2)”
Someone else said, “I came to Ibn Abi ʿArubah while two men were disputing in his presence, and he went on provoking each of them for a while.”
I say: He was among the mudallis narrators—those who obscured the identity of their sources.
Ahmad ibn Hanbal said, “Saʿid ibn Abi ʿArubah did not hear from al-Hakam, al-Aʿmash, Hammad, ʿAmr ibn Dinar, Hisham ibn ʿUrwah, Ismaʿil ibn Abi Khalid, ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿUmar, Abu Bishr, Ibn ʿAqil, Zayd ibn Aslam, ʿUmar ibn Abi Salamah, or Abu al-Zinad.
Yet he did narrate from them by way of tadlis, and he did not…"