He was born during the caliphate of ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, sometime after 80 AH.
He transmitted hadith from: ʿAwn ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUtbah, Saʿīd ibn Abī Burdah, Ziyād ibn ʿIlāqah, ʿAlqamah ibn Marthad, ʿAlī ibn al-Aqmar, ʿAmr ibn Murrāh, ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Wāʾil, Abū Bakr ibn Ḥazm, the judge of Medina, Yazīd al-Faqīr, and several others.
Those who reported from him include Ibn al-Mubārak, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, Yazīd ibn Hārūn, Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn, Abū al-Mughīrah al-Khawlānī, Ṭalq ibn Ghannām, Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Maqriʾ, Abū Nuʿaym, and many others; the last of them was ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd.
He was a great jurist and a noble leader, served the government, and had a commanding presence (1).
Abū Nuʿaym said, “I saw him wearing a black qabāʾ and a shāshiyyah, with a dagger at his waist, and between his shoulders was written in white: ‘Allah will suffice you against them; He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing’ (Q. 2:137).” Because of this, some people hesitated to take hadith from him.
Al-Haytham ibn Jamīl said, “I saw him with a dagger at his waist and a cap longer than a forearm, upon which was written: ‘Muḥammad, yā Manṣūr.’”
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal declared, “He is trustworthy.”
The auditions of Abū al-Naḍr, ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī, and the others from him took place after he had become confused, yet they still carried what they heard from him.
ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd related from Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn: “Reliable.”
ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said, “Reliable, although he erred in what he narrated from ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdalah and from Salamah.”
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Numayr al-Masʿūdī said, “Reliable; he became confused toward the end.”