Ṣāliḥ in order to write down what he narrated, but—so he said—I found musical instruments there. I asked, “What is this?”
He answered, “Something we are sending as a gift to the ruler of al-Andalus.”
So I left him and never wrote from him.

Al-ʿIjli and al-Nasāʾī both said, “Reliable.”

Abū Zurʿah said, “Reliable, a transmitter of hadith.”

Abū Ḥātim said, “His narrations are sound, good, yet they are not to be relied upon as proof.”

Yahyā ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Wuḥāẓī said, “He left Ḥimṣ in 125 AH.”

Abū Dāwūd said, “He performed the pilgrimage in 155 AH; in that year ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī and Sufyān met him in Mecca.”

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd said, “He was reliable, prolific in hadith, and served as judge for them in al-Andalus. In his lifetime he made only one pilgrimage, and when he passed through Medina those who could meet him did so.”

Yazīd ibn ʿAbd Rabbihi said, “He left Ḥimṣ in 125 AH as a young man, travelled to the Maghrib, and there assumed the judgeship.”

Abū Ṣāliḥ said, “Muʿāwiyah passed by us while on pilgrimage in 154 AH; Sufyān al-Thawrī, the scholars of Egypt, and the scholars of Medina all wrote hadith from him.”

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, reporting from Ibn Mahdī, said: “We were in Mecca reviewing hadith when a man entered and sat among us, listening to our discussion. I asked, ‘Who are you?’
He replied, ‘I am Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ.’
So we gathered round him (1).”

Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī said, “I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ say, ‘Muʿāwiyah came to us…’”