or Wakīʿ?”
He answered, “Abū Nuʿaym makes fewer mistakes.” (1)
Hanbal narrated from Abū ʿAbd Allah: “Abū Nuʿaym knows the shaykhs, their lineages, and the narrators better, while Wakīʿ is more versed in jurisprudence.” (2)
Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah said, “I heard Aḥmad say, ‘Abū Nuʿaym is more reliable than Wakīʿ.’” (3)
ʿAbd Allah ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal reported from his father that he said, “Wakīʿ erred in five hundred hadiths.” (4)
Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Tirmidhī informed us: “I heard Abū ʿAbd Allah say, ‘When Abū Nuʿaym dies, his book will become the standard; whenever people differ over something, they will refer to it.’” (5)
Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī said, “I heard Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn state, ‘I have not seen anyone more accurate than these two men: Abū Nuʿaym and ʿAffān.’” (6)
He also said, “I heard Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ declare, ‘I have never seen a hadith scholar more truthful than Abū Nuʿaym.’” (7)
Yaʿqūb al-Fasawī remarked, “Our companions are unanimous that Abū Nuʿaym reached the pinnacle of precision.” (8)