“Write it down for me.”
So I wrote it out for him and related it to him on the authority of Layth ibn Saʿd.
He then said to me, “I have already written from Mansur, from Mughirah …,” and he began listing the other shaykhs.
I said to him, “Narrate to us.”
He replied, “I do not have it memorized; my books are away from me, and I hope they will be brought to me. I have already recorded all of that.”
While we were in that state, he happened one day to mention something from the hadith.
I said, “I assume your books have arrived.”
He answered, “Indeed.”
So I said to Abu Dawud, “Our companion’s books have come to him from Kufah; let us go and look through them.”
We therefore went to him and examined his books.

Ibrahim ibn Hashim said, “Never once did Jarir say to us in Baghdad, ‘He narrated to us’—not even a single time.”
I responded, “Do you suppose he never errs? He would sometimes nod off, fall asleep, then wake up and read from exactly the point he had reached.”

Jarir lodged in Baghdad with Ibn al-Musayyab. When he crossed to the eastern bank, the river’s flood-tide (al-madd) came in, so I said to Ahmad ibn Hanbal, “Will you cross?”
He replied, “My mother will not allow me.”
I crossed myself and stayed with him. The Sindiyy would not let anyone cross—meaning because of the high water. I remained with him for 20 days and wrote down 1,500 hadith from him. Before he set out for Mecca I also wrote from him, while he was mounted on his animal, the hadith concerning the two ships.

Yaʿqub al-Sadusi said: I heard ʿAli ibn al-Madini say, “Jarir ibn ʿAbd al-Hamid was a man of the night. He kept a rope; they used to say, ‘When he grew tired, he would hold on to it’—that is, in order to continue praying.”