Those who narrated from him include: al-Bukhari—who regarded him as his noblest and eldest teacher; Jarir ibn Hazim—who had in fact been his own teacher; al-Asmaʿi; al-Khuraybi; Ishaq ibn Rahwayh; ʿAli (ibn al-Madini); Ahmad (ibn Hanbal); Abu Khaythama; Bundar; Ibn al-Muthanna; Mahmud ibn Ghailan; al-Hasan al-Hulwani; Harun al-Hammal; al-Dhuhli; al-Fallas; ʿAbd Allah ibn Munir; Ibn Warah; Ibrahim ibn Yaʿqub al-Jawzajani; al-Kawsaj; al-Harith ibn Abi Usamah; al-Kudaymi; Ahmad ibn ʿIsam al-Asbahani; ʿAbbas al-Duri; ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Quraysh; Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Daqiqi; Abu Muslim al-Kajji; and many others, the last of them to pass away being Muhammad ibn Hibban (1) al-Azhar al-Qattan.
Yahya ibn Maʿin declared him reliable.
Ahmad al-ʿIjli said: “Trustworthy, prolific in hadith, and possessed of legal insight.” (2)
Abu Hatim said: “Truthful, and he is dearer to me than Rawh ibn ʿUbadah.” (3)
ʿUmar ibn Shabbah said: “Abu ʿĀṣim al-Nabil narrated to us, and by Allah, I have never seen anyone like him.” (4)
(1) In the base manuscript the name is vocalised with a damma (u-vowel) on the letter ha. Imam al-Dhahabi writes in al-Mushtab, p. 131: “Muhammad ibn Hibban [with a fatha], from Abu Asim; Abu al-Tahir al-Dhuhli reports from him.” This is also the reading given by Hafiz Abd al-Ghani, but al-Suri and several others considered it mistaken and read it with a damma. Abd al-Ghani then adds: “With the damma we have Muhammad ibn Hibban ibn Amr, a weak Basran from whom Salm ibn al-Fadl transmitted.” Al-Dhahabi comments: “The person meant is the first one, whose name takes the damma; al-Tabarani and al-Ja‘abi narrate from him, and he is a long-lived member of the Bahila tribe.” Hafiz Ibn Hajar remarks in al-Tabsir 1/283: “This is al-Dhahabi’s view. Ibn Makula rejected the claim that the two men are identical and judged that they are distinct. Concerning the first, it is agreed that the vowel is the damma; his grandfather is Bakr ibn Amr. Ibn Makula distinguishes him by his transmission from Umayya ibn Bustam, Muhammad ibn al-Minhal and al-Hasan ibn Qaza‘a, and by his residence in the Baghdad quarter of al-Mukarram. The second is the narrator from Abu Asim; his grandfather is Azhar. He is the Bahili from whom Abu al-Tahir al-Dhuhli, al-Tabarani and others transmit, and he is a Basran. Abd al-Ghani, following his teacher Abu al-Tahir, read his name with a fatha, whereas the rest use the damma, even though both narrators are reliable and precise.”
(2) Al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal, folio 617.
(3) Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Jarh wa al-Ta‘dil, 4/463.
(4) Al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal, folio 617.