Ibn Ḥibbān said, “He possessed a written copy and would recite only from his own manuscript.”
Al-Khaṭīb remarked, “He was truthful and devout (1).”
In another place he wrote, “He was trustworthy and firmly established; all of the leading imams relied upon his narration (2).”
It is narrated that Abū Mūsā once joked, saying,
“We are a people of distinction; the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, prayed in our direction (3) —.”
Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Kindī and others stated, “Abū Mūsā died in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, 252 AH.”
Abū al-Maʿālī Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq informed us on several occasions; Abū al-Maḥāsin Muḥammad ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Abī Ḥāmid ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Dīnawarī in Baghdad informed us; my uncle, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥāmid, in 539 AH informed us; ʿĀṣim ibn al-Ḥasan in 478 AH informed us; Abū ʿUmar ibn Mahdī al-Fārisī reported to us; the judge Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us; Abū Mūsā Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā said, “Ibn ʿUyaynah related to us, from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah:
‘When the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—came to Mecca, he entered it from its upper side and left from its lower side (4).’”