He heard from: Yahya ibn Saʿid al-Qattan, Yusuf ibn ʿAtiyyah, ʿUmar ibn ʿAli al-Muqaddami, ʿAbd al-Wahhab al-Thaqafi, ʿAbd al-Aʿla al-Sami, Ghundar, Muʿadh ibn Muʿadh, ʿAli ibn ʿAsim, Yazid ibn Harun, Abu Zukayr Yahya ibn Muhammad ibn Qays, Abu Ahmad al-Zubayri, ʿUbayd ibn al-Tufayl, Saʿid ibn ʿAmir, Abu ʿAsim al-Nabil, Abu Usama, and many others besides.
He would also transmit from: Abu Khaythama, Muhammad ibn Humayd, Nasr ibn ʿAli al-Jahdami, and al-Hasan ibn ʿArafah.
Those who narrated from him include: Ibn Majah—with two hadiths—, Ibn Abi al-Dunya, Ibn Saʿid, Abu al-ʿAbbas al-Sarraj, Abu Nuʿaym ibn ʿAdi, Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Athram, Abu Bakr ibn Abi Dawud, Muhammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Kharaʾiti, Muhammad ibn Makhlad, the judge al-Mahamili, Ismaʿil ibn al-ʿAbbas al-Warraq, ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Abi Hatim, and many others.
Al-Daraqutni—and more than one other scholar—declared him reliable.
ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Abi Hatim said, “I wrote down hadith from him together with my father, and he is truthful, a man of Arabic language and letters.” (1)
Abu Hatim al-Busti said, “His hadith are sound; he was a man of letters and poetry (2), well-versed in historical reports and knowledgeable about the memorable events of the people.”