Al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Qabbānī said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Bishr related to me, saying, “I heard Ibn ʿUyaynah on the evening of Saturday, the middle of Shaʿbān in the year 196 AH, declare:
‘On this day I have completed eighty-nine years; I was born on the fifteenth of Shaʿbān in the year 107 AH.’”

I say: He lived ninety-one years in all.

In al-Fāṣil of al-Rāmahurmuzī (1) Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ al-Jardanī reports that al-Khutaym composed the following verses about Ibn ʿUyaynah:

“Travel swiftly—may Allah shield you from harm—
until, after the Sacred House, you meet Sufyān;
The elder of mankind, whose noble qualities are renowned,
who met the foremost men and gathered learning for ages.
He joined eloquence to wondrous, lofty understanding;
when he cites a ḥadith he presents decisive proof.
You behold all the middle-aged at his gathering,
listening attentively—elders and youths alike.
He links ʿAmr to al-Zuhrī in his isnād (chain of transmission),
and after ʿAmr he joins Ṣafwān to al-Zuhrī;
He has coupled ʿAbdah and ʿUbayd Allah,
and likewise Ibn al-Sabīʿī and Ibn Judʿān.
Through them, from the Messenger of Allah, he enriches us
with knowledge, rulings, interpretation, and clarification.”

Al-Riyāshī said that al-Aṣmaʿī mourned Ibn ʿUyaynah with these lines:

“Let every seeker of a forgotten sunnah weep for Sufyān,
and every investigator of clear traces and signs;
Let the one who longs for a short isnād and timely counsel lament,
and those who pause—whether just arrived or long-traveled.
His dwellings have become desolate, abandoned,
empty of residents, pilgrims, and constant visitors.
He used to transmit ḥadith from al-Zuhrī with an unbroken chain,
and likewise the narrations of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār.
After him no one remains who can say, “Al-Zuhrī narrated to us,”
whether among desert nomads or settled townsfolk.”