—Abū Muʿāwiyah is relating something from you that you no longer recall today, and the same is true of Wakīʿ.’
He replied, ‘Believe them, for in former days my memory was sharper than it is now.’

Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā al-ʿAnazī said, ‘I heard Ibn ʿUyaynah say that to Rabāḥ in the year 191 AH.’

Hāmid ibn Yaḥyā al-Balkhī narrated: ‘I heard Ibn ʿUyaynah say, “I dreamed that my teeth had fallen out. I mentioned it to al-Zuhrī, and he said, ‘Your teeth will die, but you will remain alive.’ In the end my teeth did fall out while I survived, and Allah turned every enemy of mine into a transmitter of my hadith.”’

I say: He said this because of the crushing crowds of hadith students around him; they would press on him until they wore him out.

Ghiyāth ibn Jaʿfar said: ‘I heard Ibn ʿUyaynah say, “The first person who propped me against the pillar was Misʿar ibn Kidām. I told him, ‘I am still a youth.’ He replied, ‘You carry (the knowledge of) al-Zuhrī and ʿAmr ibn Dīnār(1).’”’

Abū Muḥammad al-Rāmahurmuzī reported to us: Mūsā ibn Zakariyyā told us, Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Khuzāʿī told us, ‘I heard Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah say, “My father was a money-changer in Kūfah and fell into debt, so he relocated us to Mecca. I went to the mosque and there was ʿAmr ibn Dīnār. He related eight hadiths to me. I held the reins of his donkey until he finished his prayer and came out; then I recited the hadiths back to him, and he said, ‘May Allah bless you.’”’

Abū Muslim al-Mustamlī likewise transmitted: Ibn ʿUyaynah said, ‘I heard from ʿAmr the report about how long Noah remained among his people—that is, nine hundred and fifty years.’