al-Dhahabī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥamdūn al-Naysābūrī, ʿAdī ibn ʿAbd Allāh, the father of the ḥāfiẓ Abū Aḥmad, Mūsā ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Juwaynī, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Qaṭṭān, al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Dārakī, and a great many others.
Ibn Sābiq—his own teacher—was Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd ibn Sābiq.
Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr al-Barḏaʿī related that Abū Zurʿah said, “I do not recall ever enjoying a single day of ribāṭ (1) that was completely free of distraction. In Beirut we were intent on meeting al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd ibn Mazīd; in ʿAsqalān we sought Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Sarī; and in Qazwīn it was Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd ibn Sābiq (2).”
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said: “Farūkh, the grandfather of Abū Zurʿah, was the client of ʿAbbās ibn Muṭarrif al-Qurashī (3).”
Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb stated: “Abū Zurʿah heard from Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm, Abū Nuʿaym, Qabīṣah, Abū al-Walīd, and Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr. He was a god-fearing imām, a precise ḥāfiẓ, and an abundantly productive narrator … he sat with Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and exchanged discussion with him.
“Among the people of Baghdad who transmitted from him were Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, and Qāsim al-Muṭarriz (4).”
Tammām al-Rāzī said: “Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Kindī informed us, reporting from Abū Zurʿah of Damascus, who said: Long ago a group from Rayy arrived in Damascus—among them Abū Yaḥyā Farḵawayh. When they left—as more than one person told me, including Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī—they noticed that this young man had outshone them, meaning Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī, so they said to him, ‘We shall give you the kunyah of Abū Zurʿah of Damascus.’
“Later Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī met me in Damascus, and he would remind me…”