Aḥmad said, “The one who knows Thābit al-Bunānī best is Ḥammād ibn Salamah, and he is also the most reliable of them in narrations from Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl.”

Ishāq al-Kawsaj transmitted from Ibn Maʿīn, who said, “Ḥammād ibn Salamah is trustworthy.”

ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī stated, “In my judgment he is an authority regarding a number of narrators. He is the most knowledgeable person concerning Thābit al-Bunānī and ʿAmmār ibn Abī ʿAmmār. Whoever disparages Ḥammād should be suspected in his religion.”⦗1⦘

The author comments: “He was an ocean among the oceans of knowledge. Because of the sheer volume of what he transmitted, he did have some slips, yet he is truthful and—Allah willing—an authoritative source. In precision, however, he does not equal Ḥammād ibn Zayd. Al-Bukhārī deliberately avoided citing his narrations, except for a single report that he placed in the chapter of Heart-Softeners. There he said:

‘Abū al-Walīd told me: Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us, from Thābit, from Anas, from Ubayy.’

His hadith does not fall below the grade of ḥasan.

Muslim included his narrations in the main section of his Ṣaḥīḥ, from Thābit and Ḥumayd, because he was intimately acquainted with both of them.

ʿAmr ibn ʿĀṣim⦗3⦘ said, “I wrote down from Ḥammād ibn Salamah a little over ten thousand hadiths.”

Jaʿfar al-Ṭayālisī reported that he heard ʿAffān say, “I wrote down from Ḥammād ibn Salamah a little over ten thousand hadiths.”

Ḥajjāj ibn Minhāl remarked, “Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us, and he was among the leading imams of the religion.”

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim said, “It has been alleged that Ḥammād ibn Salamah’s memory was weak and that he would combine several transmitters into a single chain with identical wording. For that reason, Muslim did not cite his narrations in the main section of the Ṣaḥīḥ except from…"