He was, in fact, more sympathetic to the hadith scholars than either Abu Hanifah or Muhammad ibn al-Hasan.

Ibrahim ibn Abi Dawud al-Burlusi said, “I heard Ibn Maʿin remark, ‘Among the people of opinion I have never met anyone firmer in hadith, more retentive, or whose transmissions are sounder than Abu Yusuf.’”

ʿAbbas also related from Ibn Maʿin that he said, “Abu Yusuf is a man of hadith, a man of Sunnah.”

Yahya al-Barmaki reported: “When Abu Yusuf arrived, the least of what he possessed was fiqh—and yet with that fiqh he filled the two horizons.”

Ahmad (ibn Hanbal) said, “Abu Yusuf was fair-minded in hadith.”

Abu Yusuf himself stated, “I kept the company of Abu Hanifah for seventeen years.”

Hilal al-Raʾy said, “Abu Yusuf had memorized tafsir, the campaigns (maghazi) and the ‘Days of the Arabs’; fiqh was merely one of his many sciences.”

Ibn Samaʿah said, “Abu Yusuf’s daily devotions amounted to two hundred rakʿahs.”

Ibn al-Madini observed, “Nothing has been charged against Abu Yusuf except his narration concerning the Ḥijr, and he was truthful.”

Yahya ibn Yahya al-Tamimi said, “I heard Abu Yusuf at the moment of his death declare, ‘Every legal opinion I have issued I now retract—except whatever accords with the Book and the Sunnah.’ In another wording: ‘…except what is in the Quran and has the consensus of the Muslims.’”

Bishr ibn al-Walid reported hearing Abu Yusuf say, “Whoever seeks wealth through alchemy will become bankrupt; whoever seeks religion through speculative theology (kalam) will lapse into heresy; and whoever pursues singular hadith reports will be branded a liar.”