The compilers of the canonical Ṣaḥīḥ collections treated him as a reliable authority.
Aḥmad ibn Hibat Allah informed us; ʿAbd al-Muʿizz ibn Muḥammad relayed to us; Zāhir ibn Ṭāhir conveyed to us; Abū Saʿīd the physician passed it on; Abū ʿAmr ibn Ḥamdān narrated to us; al-Ḥasan ibn Sufyān narrated; Muḥammad ibn Khallād al-Bāhilī narrated; Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl reported; Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd informed us, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Take the pre-dawn meal, for there is blessing in the pre-dawn meal.” (1)
Al-Nasāʾī also recorded it, through Zakariyyā Khayyāṭ al-Sunnah (2) on the authority of al-Bāhilī, thereby raising the chain two levels higher; an even higher isnād appears in “The Treatise of Ibn ʿArafah.”
53 – Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān ibn Saʿīd ibn Farrūkh, Abū Saʿīd * (ʿ)
The great imām, the Commander of the Believers in ḥadith: Abū Saʿīd al-Tamīmī, their mawlā; a Basran, cross-eyed, known as al-Qaṭṭān, the ḥāfiẓ.
(1) Reported by al-Nasaʾi, 4/142 (Fasting, “Chapter on Encouragement to Take Suhur,” under the variants transmitted from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abi Sulayman). Also narrated by al-Bukhari, 4/120; Muslim, no. 1095; and al-Tirmidhi, no. 708, through several chains from ʿAbd al-ʿAziz ibn Suhayb and Qatadah, both from Anas ibn Malik. Al-Nasaʾi likewise related it through two isnads from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abi Sulayman, from ʿAtaʾ, from Abu Hurayrah, and through the routes of Yahya from Ibn Abi Layla, from ʿAtaʾ, as well as Yahya from Sufyan, from Ibn Abi Layla, from ʿAtaʾ.
(2) He was so nicknamed because he used to sew shrouds for the Sunni community.
(*) Principal biographical sources: Ibn Maʿin, Tarikh, p. 645; Ibn Saʿd, Tabaqat, 7/293; Khalifah, Tarikh, p. 468; Khalifah, Tabaqat (1909 ed.); al-Bukhari, al-Tarikh al-Kabir, 8/276, and al-Tarikh al-Saghir, 2/283; Ibn Qutaybah, al-Maʿarif, p. 514; Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa-l-Taʿdil, 9/150; Ibn Hibban, Mashahir ʿUlama al-Amsar (1278 ed.); Abu Nuʿaym, Hilyat al-Awliyaʾ, 8/380; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, 14/135; al-Nawawi, Tahdhib al-Asmaʾ wa-l-Lughat, 2/154; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal, fol. 1497; al-Dhahabi, Tadhhib al-Tahdhib, 4/154/2, and al-ʿIbar, 1/327, and Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 1/298, and al-Kashif, 3/256, and Duwal al-Islam, 1/125; Ibn Rajab, Sharh al-ʿIlal, 1/192; Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, 11/16; al-Suyuti, Tabaqat al-Huffaz, p. 125; Khulasat Tadhhib al-Kamal, p. 423; Ibn al-ʿImad, Shadharat al-Dhahab, 1/355.