Al-Dhuhli said, “Had Sulaymān not undertaken to preserve his ḥadīth, his reports would have vanished. I do not know of anyone who wrote down this ḥadīth of Ibn Abī ʿAtīq from Sulaymān except ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Abī Uways al-Aʿshā. I had never imagined that Sulaymān ibn Bilāl possessed the quantity of ḥadīth he actually held until I examined the book of Ibn Abī Uways and discovered that he had mastered the ḥadīth of the Medinan scholars. I also found that he had transmitted from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī a sizeable collection of al-Zuhrī’s reports, and from Yūnus al-Aylī as well.”
Abū Zurʿa al-Rāzī said, “Sulaymān ibn Bilāl is dearer to me than Hishām ibn Saʿd.”
Abū Ḥātim remarked, “Sulaymān is consistent.”
Ibn Saʿd stated, “He died in Medina in the year 172 AH.”
Al-Bukhārī related, on the authority of Hārūn ibn Muḥammad, that he died in 177 AH.
The first date is the more accurate; for had he lived longer, Qutaybah and a number of other scholars would have met him.
ʿAbd al-Ḥāfiẓ ibn Badrān and Yūsuf ibn Ghāliyah informed us, saying:
“Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir informed us; Saʿīd ibn Aḥmad informed us; ʿAlī ibn al-Busrī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Sulaymān ibn Naḍlah narrated to us; Sulaymān ibn Bilāl narrated to us, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Allah descends every night to the lowest heaven at midnight or in the last third of the night and says: ‘Who will supplicate Me so that I may answer him? Who will ask of Me so that I may give to him? Who will seek My forgiveness so that I may forgive him?’—until dawn breaks, or until the reciter concludes the Fajr prayer.” (1)