Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim said, “Saʿīd settled in Mecca as a resident near the Sanctuary, and thus was linked to it. He is the principal transmitter of Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah and one of the leading Imams of hadith. He authored many works, and the scholars unanimously include him in the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections (1).”

I add: In Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī he is cited through the route of Yaḥyā ibn Mūsā Khatt al-Balkhī, who transmits from him.

Ḥarb ibn Ismāʿīl said, “He compiled books and lived in comfortable circumstances (2).”

Yaʿqūb al-Fasawī remarked, “Whenever he noticed an error in his manuscript, he would not retract it.”

I say: How different this is from his contemporary, the Imam Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Khurāsānī, who, if he doubted even a single letter or felt any hesitation, would abandon the entire report and refuse to narrate it.

Ibn Saʿd, Abū Dāwūd, Ḥātim ibn al-Layth, and others said that he died in Mecca in 227 AH. Abū Saʿīd ibn Yūnus added that it was in the month of Ramaḍān. Abū Zurʿa al-Dimashqī held it was in 226 AH, but the first view is the correct one. Mūsā ibn Hārūn blundered, stating that it was in 229 AH.

We were informed by Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ṣaydalanī and a group, who said:
Fāṭimah bint ʿAbd Allāh told us; Ibn Rīdhah told us; al-Ṭabarānī told us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ṣāʾigh narrated to us; Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr narrated to us; Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Shaqīq, who said:

ʿAbd Allāh said, “Whoever emigrates seeking something, that is what he will obtain. A man once emigrated in order to marry a woman named Umm Qays, and so he was called ‘the emigrant of Umm Qays.’”

Its isnād is sound (3).