Ṣāliḥ ibn Ḥātim ibn Wardān said, “I heard Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ declare, ‘Every religion has its knights, and the knights of this religion are the bearers of the isnāds.’
According to Tahdhīb, among those who also transmitted from him were: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdah al-Ḍabbī, Aḥmad ibn Abī ʿUbayd Allah al-Salīmī, Ismāʿīl ibn Masʿūd, Bishr ibn Muʿādh, Bishr ibn Hilāl, Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ, Bakr ibn Khalaf, Bahz ibn Asad, Ḥabbān ibn Hilāl, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUmar ibn Shaqīq, Ḥammād ibn Masʿadah, Rūḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Muʾmin, Zakariyyā ibn ʿAdī, Abū al-Rabīʿ al-Zahrānī, Sahl ibn ʿUthmān, Suwayd ibn Saʿīd, Ṣāliḥ ibn Ḥātim, al-Ṣalt ibn Muḥammad al-Khārakī (1), al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd al-Narsī, al-ʿAbbās ibn Yazīd al-Baḥrānī, al-Qaʿnabī, ʿAbdān, ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Ḥammād, al-Fallās, Qutaybah, Bundār, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Muqaddamī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, Muḥammad ibn al-Naḍr ibn Musāwir, Yaḥyā ibn Ḥabīb, and Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā.
Abū Bakr al-Asadī reported from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, who said, “In Basra, the ultimate benchmark of accurate preservation is him.”
Aḥmad also remarked, “Anything he narrates from Abū ʿArūbah—do not trouble yourself to hear it from anyone else. His audition from Saʿīd is early, and he would approach hadith with sincere intention.”
ʿAbd al-Khāliq ibn Manṣūr related from Ibn Maʿīn: “Trustworthy and dependable.”
Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ likewise quoted Ibn Maʿīn: “He is the most firmly grounded of the Basran shaykhs.”
Ibn Saʿd said, “He was trustworthy, an authoritative proof, and prolific in hadith. He died in 182 AH (2).”