Al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan al-Rāzī said, “I asked Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn about Abū Salamah, and he replied, ‘Reliable, trustworthy.’ (1)

Abū Ḥātim narrated from Yaḥyā who said, “He was intelligent, and Ḥajjāj ibn Minhāl was a righteous man, yet Abū Salamah was the more precise of the two.” (2)

Abū Ḥātim also said, “I heard Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī state, ‘Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl is reliable and truthful.’” (3)

And Abū Ḥātim reported: ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said, “Whoever failed to write directly from Abū Salamah had to write from someone who narrated from him.” (4)

I say: This is exactly what happened to Muslim; he hesitated to meet him, so he ended up writing from a man who narrated on his authority.

Ibn Saʿd said, “He was reliable and transmitted a great many ḥadiths.” (5)

Abū Ḥātim said, “He was reliable; among the people of Basra whom we encountered I know of no one whose narrations were better than his.” (6)

He added, “He was called ‘al-Tabūdhakī’ because he bought a house in Tabūdhak and was therefore ascribed to it.” (7)

Aḥmad ibn Abī Khaythamah said, “I heard him say:
‘May the one who nicknamed me not be rewarded with good!’”