Al-Wāqidī said, “He was one of the most scrupulously devout and outstanding people (1). Others charged him with being a Qadari, yet he was no Qadari at all.”

His brother told me: “He used to fast every other day. One day a man arrived and began asking him about the earthquake in Syria (2). He turned to him, answering and listening. That day happened to be his day for eating, so I said to him, ‘Get up and take your meal.’ He replied, ‘Leave it for today.’ From that day on he fasted continuously until he died.

“He lived in straitened circumstances and was among the sternest (3) of men. In his youth he composed love poetry, but when he grew older he took up the study of hadith and said, ‘Had I sought it while I was young, I would have caught the senior scholars. I neglected them; I was careless.’

“He memorised hadith; he owned no written book.”

Ḥammād ibn Khālid said, “He used to be likened to Ibn al-Musayyib. Whenever he and Mālik were together in the presence of a ruler, Ibn Abī Dhiʿb would speak the truth, commanding and forbidding, while Mālik remained silent.”

ʿUthmān al-Dārimī said, “I asked Yaḥyā, ‘What is the standing of Ibn Abī Dhiʿb in his narrations from al-Zuhrī?’ He replied, ‘Ibn Abī Dhiʿb is trustworthy.’ I said, ‘He is reliable, acceptable.’ ”

Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah reported: “I asked ʿAlī about him, and he said, ‘With us he is trustworthy, but people weakened him over certain reports he transmitted from al-Zuhrī.’ ”

Aḥmad was asked about him; he declared him reliable, though he was not satisfied with his narrations from al-Zuhrī.

Ibn Abī Fudayk said: “He died in 158 AH.”

Abū Nuʿaym and a group of others said: “He died in 159.”

Al-Wāqidī said: “He fell ill in Kūfah, and it was there that he died.”