Al-Fallās related: “I heard Ibn al-Mahdī say, ‘Abū Khaldah narrated to us.’ Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal then asked him, ‘Was he reliable?’ He answered, ‘He was a tutor and a virtuous man; the truly reliable ones are Shuʿbah and Misʿar.’

Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī said: “I heard Abū Nuʿaym state, ‘Misʿar is the most accurate, then Sufyān (1), then Shuʿbah (2).’”

Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī likewise reported: “I heard Abū Nuʿaym say, ‘Misʿar was prone to hesitation in his narrations, yet he never erred in any of them except in a single ḥadīth.’”

Al-ʿIjli remarked: “A Kufan, trustworthy, firmly grounded.”

Al-Aʿmash used to say: “Misʿar’s devil overpowers him, making him doubtful about ḥadīth; in addition, he composed poetry.”

Yaḥyā and Aḥmad both declared: “Reliable.”

Ibn ʿAmmār said: “A decisive authority—who in Kūfah is comparable to him?!”

Abū Ḥātim observed: “Misʿar is more precise than Sufyān, produces sounder narrations, enjoys higher chains, and is more exact than Ḥammād ibn Zayd (3).”

Abū Dāwūd commented: “Misʿar transmitted from one hundred teachers from whom Sufyān did not transmit.”

Muḥammad ibn ʿAmmār al-Rāzī said: “I heard Abū Nuʿaym say, ‘I heard al-Thawrī say, “Faith increases and decreases.”’ I asked him, ‘What do you yourself say, Abū Nuʿaym?’ He turned away from me and replied, ‘I say what Sufyān says.’”

Misʿar died—he was among their finest—while both Sufyān and Sharīk were present, yet they did not attend his funeral.

He passed away in Rajab, in the year 155 AH.