Among those who received narrations from him were his son ʿAbd Allāh; Abū Aḥmad al-Zubayrī; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dāwūd al-Khuraybī; ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā; Khalaf ibn al-Walīd; Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bukayr; ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd; and several others.
Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “Trustworthy.”
Abū Ḥātim said, “Reliable and truthful.”
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, al-Nasāʾī, and others remarked, “He is not strong.”
Abū Zurʿah stated, “He makes many mistakes.”
Ibn al-Madīnī said, “He is ʿĪsā ibn Abī ʿĪsā, trustworthy, but he used to mix things up.” On another occasion he said, “His ḥadith may be written down, though he errs.”
Ḥanbal relates from Aḥmad: “His narrations are acceptable.”
ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī transmitted from his father: “He is on the level of Mūsā ibn ʿUbaydah.”
Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah reported from Ibn al-Madīnī: “In our estimation he was trustworthy.”
ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī said, “He has weakness.”
Al-Sājī said, “Truthful, but not precise.”
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Dashtakī recounted: “I heard Abū Jaʿfar say, ‘I never wrote from al-Zuhrī because he used to dye his hair black.’” Al-Dashtakī then added, “Abū Jaʿfar al-Rāzī travelled alongside al-Mahdī and wore black.”
I say: He accompanied al-Mahdī on the journey to Mecca.