Al-Sulamī said: I asked al-Dāraqutnī, “Whom do you place ahead—Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā or ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Samarqandī?” He replied, “Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā. Whoever wishes to look and see how limited his own learning is beside that of the early scholars should study Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā’s ʿIlal Ḥadīth al-Zuhrī (Hidden Defects in the Hadith of al-Zuhrī).” (1)

Al-Nasāʾī said, “He is trustworthy, reliable.” (2)

The “Imam of the Imams,” Ibn Khuzaymah, stated: “Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dhuhlī—the leading scholar of his age—narrated to us. May Allah lodge him in His Garden together with those who loved him.” (3)

Ṣāliḥ Jazara was asked about Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā and responded, “There is no one in the world more foolish than the person who needs to ask about Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā.”

Ibn al-Sharqī said, “Khurasan has never produced anyone like Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā,” and added, “He died in the year 258 AH.” Others specify that this occurred in Rabīʿ al-Awwal.

In the handwriting of Abū ʿAmr al-Mustamli it is recorded: “He lived for eighty-six years.”

Abū Aḥmad ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Marwazī said: I heard Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Bāshānī say, “Al-Dhuhlī died on Tuesday, three days before the end of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, in the year 258 AH.”

Yaʿqūb ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣaydalanī said: “[It was] on Monday, four days before the end of Rabīʿ al-Awwal.”

Al-Dhuhlī was unwavering in his adherence to the Sunnah; he took a stand against Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl