A number of critics pronounced him reliable—apart from the material he relates from al-Zuhrī—for in those narrations he is inconsistent and produces what is objectionable.

ʿAbbās reports from Ibn Maʿīn that he said, “There is nothing wrong with him, yet he is not among the foremost students of al-Zuhrī.”

Aḥmad ibn Abī Khaythamah likewise transmits from Ibn Maʿīn: “He is trustworthy; he used to tutor al-Mahdī. Only his narrations from al-Zuhrī are unsatisfactory, for he heard from him only during the pilgrimage season.”

Abu Ḥātim said, “His ḥadith is acceptable, though not strong enough for proof; he is similar to Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq.”

Ibn Ḥibbān remarked, “Fairness toward him requires discarding whatever he reports from al-Zuhrī and relying on what he transmits from others, because al-Zuhrī’s notebook became mixed up for him, and he would reproduce it by mere conjecture.”

I say: He died during the caliphate of Abū Jaʿfar, sometime in the one-hundred-and-fifties AH, and roughly three hundred of his hadiths are extant.

96 – Ṣāliḥ ibn Abī al-Akhdar al-Yamāmī * (4)

A well-known traditionist from Yamāmah who later settled in Basra.
He narrated from Ibn Abī Mulaykah, Nāfiʿ al-ʿUmarī, Ibn al-Munkadir, and al-Zuhrī.