He narrated from Mālik, Ḥammād ibn Zayd, Abū ʿAwānah, Juwayriyah ibn Asmāʾ, Qazaʿah ibn Suwayd, Sharīk ibn ʿAbd Allāh, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-Mawāl, Abū Ghassān Muḥammad ibn Muṭarrif, Hushaym—of whom he was the most knowledgeable of all people—Salām ibn Abī Muṭīʿ, Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd, Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh, Ibn al-Mubārak, ʿAmr ibn Abī al-Miqdām, Mujammiʿ ibn Yaʿqūb, Maṭar ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Aʿnaq, ʿAbd al-Muʾmin ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Sadūsī, ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād, Ibn ʿUyaynah, Ḥajjāj al-Aʿwar, and many others.
Those who transmitted from him include Abū Dāwūd—while al-Bukhārī cites him only in suspended form—Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dhuhalī, ʿAbd Allāh al-Dārimī, Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb al-Jawzajānī, Ṭālib ibn Qurrā al-Adhanī, ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Dayraʿqūlī, Abū Ḥātim, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Tirmidhī, his nephew Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf, Aḥmad ibn Khalīd al-Ḥalabī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Ḥawṭī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, and many others besides them.
He was counted among the venerable masters of Islam.
Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal mentioned him, saying, “Intelligent, astute.” (1)
Al-Athram relates from Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal that, when he cited the hadith of Hushaym—from Ibn Shubrumah, from al-Shaʿbī—concerning a man who undertakes fasting as an expiation and later becomes able to afford the alternative, he (Ahmad) remarked, “I do not think he heard it directly from Ibn Shubrumah.”
Someone said to Abū ʿAbd Allāh (Ahmad) about Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā, “He says regarding it: ‘He informed us, Ibn Shubrumah.’” Ahmad seemed surprised, so I said to him, “Surely Abū Jaʿfar is well-versed in this.” He replied, “Yes, Abū Jaʿfar is clever and perceptive.” (2)