He transmitted from al-Hasan, Muhammad, Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allah, Thābit, Qatādah, Abū ʿImrān al-Jawnī, and many others.

Among those who narrated from him were ʿAffān, Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm, ʿUbayd Allah al-ʿAyshī, Khālid ibn Khidāsh, Ṭālūt ibn ʿAbbād, and others besides.

ʿAbbās al-Dūrī reported that Yaḥyā said, “There is no harm in him.” Al-Bukhārī, however, declared, “His ḥadith are munkar (1).” Abū Dāwūd said, “His ḥadith is not to be written down.” Muḥammad ibn Abī Shaybah related from Ibn Maʿīn, “He is weak.”

ʿAffān remarked, “He was exceedingly fearful of Allah; when he preached it was as though he were a bereaved mother.”

Ibn ʿAdī said, “He was a storyteller with a pleasant voice, yet most of his reports are munkar; the fault lies in his scant familiarity with the chains of transmission, and in my view he does not do this deliberately (2).”

It is said that when Sufyān al-Thawrī heard him he exclaimed, “This is no mere storyteller—this is a warner.”

Ibn al-Aʿrābī stated, “What most characterized Ṣāliḥ was constant remembrance and a plaintive mode of recitation (3).” It is also said that he was the first person in Basra to recite in this sorrowful style, and that a number of listeners died while hearing his recitation.

He passed away in 172 AH, though another report says he lived until 176 AH.

Al-Aṣmaʿī said, “I was present when Ṣāliḥ al-Murrī offered condolences to a man, and he said: ‘If…’”