Yahya ibn Maʿin said, “I have not seen anyone who transmits hadith purely for the sake of Allah except Wakiʿ and al-Qaʿnabī.” (1)

Al-Hafiz Abu ʿAmr and Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Hayri relate: “I heard my father say: I asked al-Qaʿnabī, ‘Why do you report nothing from Shuʿbah except this one hadith?’

He replied, ‘Shuʿbah found me burdensome, so he would not narrate to me.’

He was referring to the hadith: ‘idhā lam tastahyi fa-iṣnaʿ mā shiʾta’ (If you feel no shame, then do as you wish).”

That hadith is recorded with an elevated chain in Ibn al-Bukhari’s booklet Juzʾ al-Ghaṭrīf. (2)

ʿAbd Allah al-Khuraybī—an authority of great rank—said, “Al-Qaʿnabī narrated to me from Malik, and, by Allah, he is, in my estimation, better than Malik.” (3)

ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī al-Fallās said, “Al-Qaʿnabī’s supplications were answered.” (4)

ʿUthman ibn Saʿīd reported: “I heard ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī mention Malik’s students. Someone said to him, ‘Maʿn first, then al-Qaʿnabī.’ He replied, ‘No—al-Qaʿnabī first, then Maʿn.’ ” (5)

It is also related from Abu Sabrah al-Madani that he said, “I said to al-Qaʿnabī, ‘You have narrated, yet you were not…’”