Zayd ibn—al-Saʾib al-Jazarī, Abū al-Malīḥ al-Raqqī, ʿAbbād ibn Kathīr al-Ramlī, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Ḥāzim, al-Darāwardī, Ibn al-Mubārak, al-Naḍr ibn ʿArabī, Mūsā ibn Aʿyan, Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, and many others.
Those who narrated from him include: Abū Dāwūd—who transmitted from him most extensively—Abū Dāwūd Sulaymān ibn Sayf, ʿAlī ibn ʿUthmān al-Nufaylī, Aḥmad ibn Sulaymān al-Ruhāwī, Abū Zurʿah, Abū Ḥātim, al-Dhuhlī, Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Būshanjī, Ibrāhīm ibn Dayzil, al-Faḍl ibn Muḥammad al-Shaʿrānī, Abū al-Aṣba gh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qarqisānī, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿIqāl, Jaʿfar al-Firyābī, and many others.
Al-Bukhārī also reported, through “Muḥammad”—unnamed—from al-Nufaylī; some said that this Muḥammad was al-Dhuhlī, while others said it was al-Būshanjī.
Abū Bakr al-Athram said: “I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh praise al-Nufaylī, saying, ‘He used to accompany me to Miskīn ibn Bukayr.’” (1)
Abū Ḥātim said: “I heard Ibn Maʿīn commend al-Nufaylī.” (2)
Abū ʿUbayd al-Ājurrī narrated from Abū Dāwūd, who said, “I have never seen anyone with a sharper memory than al-Nufaylī.” I asked, “Not even ʿĪsā ibn Shādhān?” He replied, “Not even ʿĪsā. Al-Shādhankūnī acknowledged no one’s memorization except al-Nufaylī’s, and whenever Aḥmad mentioned him he would hold him in great esteem.”
Abū Dāwūd also said, “We never saw a single book of his; everything he transmitted to us was from memory.” (3)
He further related: “I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, ‘Which of the two is more reliable in narrating from Zuhayr: Aḥmad ibn Yūnus, or—’”