In the material he transmitted he was, in every sense, a man of the Sunnah and the united community.
I heard him say, “I was born in 150 AH.”
He (the narrator) also said: “He died two nights into Shaʿbān, 240 AH, at the age of ninety. He had written down hadith from three successive tiers of teachers: al-Layth, Ibn Lahiʿah …” until he went on to say:
“After that he wrote from Idrīs, Wakīʿ, al-ʿAnqazī and their peers, and later from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways and Saʿīd ibn Sulaymān.”
As for Mūsā ibn Hārūn, he said: “He (Qutaybah) was born in 148 AH, the year al-Aʿmash died. I heard him say, ‘I was present at the death of Ibn Lahiʿah and attended his funeral in 174 AH.’”
I (the author) add: Al-Humaydī and Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl the preacher both narrated from him, and ninety-eight years separate their deaths.
Al-Khaṭīb, in his book al-Sābiq wa-l-Lāḥiq, states that Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād and Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Sarrāj transmitted from him, and there are eighty-four years between their deaths.
Ibn al-Muqriʾ relates in his Muʿjam: “Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Naysābūrī told us— I heard al-Ḥasan ibn Sufyān say:
‘We were standing at Qutaybah’s door when one of the men with us fell ill. He kept repeating, “I will not leave until (1) I pronounce the takbīr over Qutaybah.” The man died. When Qutaybah was informed, he came out and led the funeral prayer for him, then wrote on his grave: This is the grave of the man who killed Qutaybah.’”
Abū Naṣr also narrated from Qutaybah that he said, “I was born in 148 AH—Allāh knows best.”