Ibn al-Muthannā said: I heard al-Ansārī say,
“Formerly ten days could pass without my drinking a single drop of water, whereas today I must drink once every two days; and never in my life have I gone to a ruler except loathingly.” (1)

It is also reported that he studied jurisprudence with Zufar and with Abū Yūsuf—Allah knows best.

Ibn Saʿd (2) and others relate that al-Ansārī died in Basra, in the month of Rajab, 215 AH.

I add: He lived ninety-seven years and was the foremost transmitter of his era. He left a well-known fascicle (juzʾ) of al-ʿawālī reports preserved solely by al-Tāj al-Kindī; another fascicle narrated from him by Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī, which has reached us through al-Silafī; and yet another fascicle transmitted from him by Abū Ḥātim al-Muhallab ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Muhallab al-Muhallabī. His ḥadith also appears with elevated chains in the Ghaylāniyyāt (3). Among al-Bukhārī’s teachers no one was older than he, nor did anyone possess higher chains of transmission—though al-Bukhārī did have a few peers in this regard, such as ʿUbaydullāh ibn Mūsā, Abū ʿĀṣim, and Makkī ibn Ibrāhīm, may Allah have mercy on them.

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad, together with several others, informed us in writing, saying:
ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad informed us; Hibat Allāh ibn Muḥammad informed us; Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ghaylān informed us; Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; al-Ansārī narrated to us; Sulaymān al-Taymī told me that Abū ʿĀṣim related to them, from Usāmah ibn Zayd:
that the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said, “I stood at the gate of Paradise, and saw that the majority of those …”