Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah said: “Baqiyyah is trustworthy; his ḥadiths are good when he narrates from the recognized transmitters. Yet he also relates from people whose narrations are to be abandoned, as well as from the weak. He shifts from their personal names to their kunyahs and from their kunyahs to their names (1), and he narrates from those younger than himself.

Among those he transmitted from is Suwayd ibn Saʿīd al-Ḥadathānī.

Ibn Saʿd said: “Baqiyyah was reliable when reporting from trustworthy narrators, but weak when reporting from others who are not trustworthy.”

I (al-Dhahabī) say: He is likewise weak whenever he uses the formula “from (ʿan),” for he practiced tadlīs.

Aḥmad al-ʿIjlī said: “He is reliable when narrating from the well-known, but if he narrates from an unknown person, he is worth nothing.”

Abū Zurʿah remarked: “Baqiyyah is a marvel: when he narrates from the trustworthy, he is trustworthy; yet he also reports from people who are unknown and lack precision.”

He added: “He has no defect except his abundance of narrations from unknown individuals. As for truthfulness, he is not deficient in that.”

Abū Ḥātim said: “His ḥadith may be written down but not cited as proof, and he is dearer to me than Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh.”

Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nasāʾī said: “When he says ‘he narrated to us’ or ‘he informed us,’ he is reliable; but when he says ‘from so-and-so,’ nothing is to be taken from him, because one does not know from whom he really took it.”

Abū Aḥmad ibn ʿAdī said: “In some of his transmissions he contradicts the reliable narrators, and if….”