He said, “I was born in 143 AH (1).
He narrated from: Ḥarīz ibn ʿUthmān the Successor, ʿUfayr ibn Maʿdān, Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah, al-Muthannā ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ—though I do not think he actually met him—Abū Ghassān Muḥammad ibn Muṭarrif, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Thābit ibn Thawbān, Ṣadaqah ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Samīn, ʿUtbah ibn Ḍamrah ibn Ḥabīb, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, and a number of others.
Those who narrated from him include: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal; ʿAmr ibn Manṣūr al-Nasāʾī; Abū Isḥāq al-Jawzajānī; al-Bukhārī in his Ṣaḥīḥ; Ibrāhīm ibn al-Haytham al-Baladī; Abū Zurʿah al-Naṣrī; Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dhuhlī; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Ḥawṭī; Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Ḥawṭī; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥamzah; Yazīd ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad; Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd Allāh Sammūyah; Muḥammad ibn ʿAwf al-Ṭāʾī; Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿIrq, and many others.
Al-Nasāʾī and a number of scholars (2) declared him reliable.
Abū Ḥātim said, “While I was in Damascus I used to supply people with information about ʿAlī ibn ʿAyyāsh; they would go out to him and listen to him while I remained in Damascus—until the news of his death reached us (3).”
Yaḥyā ibn Aktham said, “I brought ʿAlī ibn ʿAyyāsh before al-Maʾmūn. He smiled, then wept, whereupon al-Maʾmūn exclaimed, ‘Ya Yaḥyā, you have brought me a madman!’ I replied, ‘I have brought before you the best and most knowledgeable man in all Syria—apart from Abū al-Mughīrah (4).’”