He transmitted hadith from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, al-Aʿmash, Muṭarrif ibn Ṭarīf, ʿĪsā ibn ʿUmar, Abān ibn Taghlib, and others of their rank.

Those who reported from him include Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī, Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Ḥimmanī, Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, and his grandson Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm Shādhān (1).

Sufyān al-Thawrī once asked about him, “What has become of Saʿd?” They replied, “He has been appointed judge of Shiraz.” He commented, “A pearl that has fallen into the latrine.” (2)

I say: his narrations are sound, and I know of no one who has ever criticized him.

Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad told us—Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Maḥmūdī and Jaʿfar al-Hamadhānī likewise related—saying: Abū Ṭāhir al-Sulafī informed us; al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl informed us; ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad al-Burjī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ narrated to us; Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us; Saʿd ibn al-Ṣalt narrated to us; ʿĪsā ibn ʿUmar narrated to us; ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ narrated to us, from Zayd ibn Arqam, who traced it back to the Prophet ﷺ:

“Whoever performs the pilgrimage on behalf of his parents when they themselves never performed it, it will suffice for them and for him; their spirits will be raised in the heavens, and he will be recorded with Allah as a dutiful son.” (3)