Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nahāwandī said: I heard Yaʿqūb al-Fasawī declare,
“I have taken notes from a thousand shaykhs, yet my proof before Allah rests on just two men: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ.”

And through the chain that reaches Shaykh al-Islām al-Anṣārī: Abū Yaʿqūb informed us; Manṣūr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Dhuhlī informed us; Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Bukhārī narrated to us; I heard Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Būshanjī mention Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and say,
“In my estimation he surpasses Sufyān al-Thawrī in merit and in jurisprudence. Sufyān was never tested as Aḥmad was tested, and neither Sufyān’s knowledge nor that of the foremost jurists of the regions equals the knowledge possessed by Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, for he had gathered it all, was more perceptive of their errors, and better knew their truthful narrators from their liars.”

He continued, “It has also reached me that Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith said, ‘Aḥmad has stood in the station of the prophets. In both ease and hardship he was tried, and in each circumstance he held fast to Allah.’”

Abū Yaḥyā al-Nāqid related: We were with Ibrāhīm ibn ʿArʿarah when Yaʿlā ibn ʿĀṣim was mentioned. Someone remarked, “Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal grades him weak.”
Another man said, “What harm is that if he is reliable?”
Ibn ʿArʿarah replied, “By Allah, were Aḥmad to criticise even ʿAlqamah and al-Aswad, it would harm them both.”

Al-Ḥunaynī said: I heard Ismāʿīl ibn al-Khalīl say, “If Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal had lived among the Children of Israel, he would have been a sign.”

ʿAlī ibn Shuʿayb reported: We have among us the proverb current among the Children of Israel that one of them would have a saw set upon the crown of his head, yet it would not turn him from his religion. Had Aḥmad not stood firm in this affair, it would have been a disgrace to us that a people were cast into the crucible and not one of them emerged.”

Ibn Salm said: I heard Muḥammad ibn Naṣr al-Marwazī say, “I travelled to…"