Among those who narrated from him were Sufyān al-Thawrī—who was actually older than he—Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Farwah ibn Abī al-Maghrāʾ, Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd, Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah and his brother ʿUthmān, ʿAlī ibn Ḥujr, ʿAmr an-Nāqid, Hannād ibn al-Sarī, Wahb ibn Bayān, Ibn Numayr, Ibrāhīm ibn Mujashshir, al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Zaʿfarānī, and a great many others.

ʿAbdullāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: My father was asked about him and replied, “He is dearer to me than Ziyād al-Bakkāʾī, and his ḥadīths are more sound.”

Al-Faḍl ibn Ziyād reported from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal that he said, “How excellent are his narrations! He is dearer to me than Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allāh.”

Abū Bakr al-Athram stated: “Abū ʿAbd Allāh (Aḥmad) spoke of ʿUbaydah ibn Ḥumayd in the highest terms, elevating his standing and saying, ‘I do not know why people take issue with him.’” He then affirmed the reliability of his reports, adding, “He slipped only rarely, and you will not find any textual corruption (taṣḥīf) in his work.”

Abū ʿAbd Allāh further said, “The first time I wrote from him was in the Mosque of ʿAffān; later I recorded from him in the years 180 and 181 AH, in the town of al-Waḍḍāḥ.”

Aḥmad ibn Saʿd related from Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn that he judged him “trustworthy.”

ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd reported from Yaḥyā that he said, “The poor fellow has no fault, but he has enjoyed no good fortune.”

Jaʿfar ibn Abī ʿUthmān al-Ṭayālisī quoted Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn as saying, “There was nothing wrong with him. He used to reside in Darb al-Mufaḍḍal, then moved to Qaṣr Waḍḍāḥ; people only censured him for sitting with the book-dealers.”

ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said, “His ḥadīths are sound, yet I never transmitted anything from him.”