He was known as al-Muqawwim—though some pronounce it al-Muqawwimī.
He transmitted from Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Thaqafī, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad al-ʿAmmī, Ghundar, Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿAdī, Makhlad ibn Yazīd al-Ḥarrānī, Muʿādh ibn Muʿādh, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, Ḥaramī ibn ʿUmārah, Ḥammād ibn Masʿadah, Salm ibn Qutaybah, Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī, and many others.
In the Tahdhīb compiled by our shaykh it is stated that he also narrated from al-Nuʿmān ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Iṣfahānī, though in fact he never met him.
He even went so far as to relate ḥadith from Abū al-Walīd and ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb al-Rāsibī.
Among those who narrated from him are: Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Mājah, Aslam ibn Sahl, Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Sijzī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khalād al-Rāmahurmuzī, ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn Bujayr, Ibn Khuzaymah, Abū ʿArūbah al-Ḥarrānī, Abū Quraysh Muḥammad ibn Jumʿah, ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Maqānīʿī, Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāʿid, Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Ruyānī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Dāwūd, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUrwah, the ḥāfiẓ ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm Abū al-Ādhān, and a great many others.
Abū Dāwūd said: “He was a precise ḥāfiẓ.”
Al-Nasāʾī said: “Trustworthy, a ḥāfiẓ.”
Abū ʿArūbah said: “I have never seen anyone in Basra more reliable than he, or than Abū Mūsā al-ʿAnazī (1).” He added that Yaḥyā was devout and scrupulous in worship—or words to that effect.
Abū Ḥātim al-Bustī said: “He was among those who collected and authored works (2).”