to me, “What have you managed to do?”
I told him, and he said, “This is a man who remembers the taʾwīl (interpretive meaning) but does not remember the tanzīl (revealed wording). Go, lead the people in prayer, and recite whichever surah you wish.” (1)

This, then, is a mursal report, yet al-Barbarī is a reliable ḥāfiẓ.

Ibrāhīm ibn Jābir the jurist said, “I heard Abū Bakr al-Ṣāghānī—when al-Wāqidī was mentioned—declare, ‘By Allah, were he not trustworthy in my estimation I would never relate from him. Those who narrated from him include Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, Abū ʿUbayd …,’ and he named others.” (2)

Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī said, “I heard Muṣʿab ibn ʿAbd Allāh say, ‘Al-Wāqidī is trustworthy, reliable.’ (3)

Maʿn ibn ʿĪsā was asked about al-Wāqidī and replied, “I am to be asked about al-Wāqidī? Al-Wāqidī should be asked about me!” (4)

I asked Ibn Numayr about him, and he said, “As for his ḥadith here, it is acceptable; as for the reports of the people of Medina, they know them better than I.”

Jābir ibn Kurdī transmitted from Yazīd ibn Hārūn, who said, “Al-Wāqidī is reliable.”

Al-Ḥarbī said, “I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh say, ‘Al-Wāqidī is trustworthy.’

Al-Ḥarbī also remarked, “Abū ʿUbayd’s jurisprudence comes from al-Wāqidī’s books; he possessed al-Ikhtilāf and al-Ijmāʿ.”

Then Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī said, “He is a great imām—even if he erred in this particular ijtihād. Whoever claims that the questions of Mālik and Ibn Abī Dhiʾb should be taken only from someone more reliable than al-Wāqidī is not to be believed, for he (Abū ʿUbayd) said, ‘I asked Mālik, and I asked Ibn Abī Dhiʾb.’ (5)