Yahyā ibn Maʿīn expressed differing opinions about him. Muslim nevertheless cited him as an authority. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, “His ḥadīth are sound,” while al-Nasāʾī remarked, “There is no harm in him.” By contrast, Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ related from Yahyā that he judged him “weak.”

Abū ʿAwanah—or someone else—recorded that he died in 166 AH. I have found nothing objectionable in his transmissions that deserves criticism, and his reports do not fall below the rank of ḥasan. Allah is the Grantor of success.

108 – Ayyūb ibn ʿUtbah al-Yamāmī, Abū Yaḥyā, Chief Judge of al-Yamāmah * (Q)
Abū Yaḥyā, the judge of al-Yamāmah, was considered lenient because of his weak retention.

He narrated from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ, Iyās ibn Salamah, and Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr.

Those who transmitted from him include al-Aswad Shadhān, Ādam ibn Abī Iyās, ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūnus, Saʿīd ibn Sulaymān al-Wāsiṭī, ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd, and others.

He later resided in Basra. Al-Fallas commented, “His memory was poor.”