I say: He lived for seventy years, or even longer.
I read this report to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Munʿim, who received it from Abū al-Yaman Zayd ibn al-Ḥasan (Ḥ (1)).
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad the jurist, together with a group, also informed us, saying: Abū al-Yaman and Abū Ḥafṣ the schoolmaster (Ḥ) related it to us.
Al-Miqdād ibn Abī al-Qāsim conveyed it to us by authorisation; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Akhaḍar (Ḥ) narrated it to us.
Yahya ibn Abī Manṣūr al-Hanbalī likewise informed us; Abū al-Yaman al-Kindī and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Manīnā transmitted it to us. The four of them said:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī al-Anṣārī told us; Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar al-Barmakī—during the fourth session—told us; ʿAbd Allah ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Māsi informed us; Ibrāhīm ibn Mūsā al-Jawzī narrated to us; Abū Thawr al-Kalbī reported to us; Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm, from Ḥumayd, from Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allah, from Abū Rāfiʿ, from Abū Hurayrah, related that:
the Prophet ﷺ met him on one of the roads of Medina while he was in a state of major ritual impurity (junub). He slipped away, went off, performed a full bath, and the Messenger of Allah missed him. When he returned, the Prophet said, “Where were you, Abū Hurayrah?”
He replied, “O Messenger of Allah, you encountered me while I was junub, and I was reluctant to sit with you.”
He said, “A believer is never impure.”