al-Sayyārī narrated: I heard Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd ibn Yazīd al-Rāzī say, “I heard Abū Zurʿah remark:

‘I travelled to Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ of Egypt. I entered his presence together with a group of ḥadīth scholars and we reviewed traditions until the time was almost up. Then I pulled from my sleeve some brief excerpts that contained several reports and questioned him about them. He said to me, “Come back.”

The next day I returned, the scholars of ḥadīth with me. I produced the same notes and asked him about them, and again he said, “Come back.”

So I said, “Did you not tell me yesterday to come back? Produce whatever you have that is worth recording—whether the chain is fully connected or broken, even a single word from which I might benefit. If I cannot narrate it for you through someone more reliable than you, then I am not Abū Zurʿah!” I then said (1), “Who here is there from whom we should write?”

They answered, “Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr.”’

Ibn Jawṣā said: I heard Abū Isḥāq al-Jawzajānī say, ‘We were with Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and he refused us admission for several days. When we were finally ushered in he said, “News reached me that this young man—meaning Abū Zurʿah—had arrived, so I reviewed 300,000 ḥadīths in preparation for meeting him.”’

Abū Ḥātim reported: ‘Abū Zurʿah would not eat cheese or vinegar.’

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān said: I heard Abū Zurʿah state, ‘Do not write anything from me that is based solely on revision sessions, for I fear you might carry away an error. Ibn al-Mubārak disliked having material transmitted from him in that manner, and Ibrāhīm ibn Mūsā likewise told me, “Do not transmit anything from me on the basis of mere revision.”’

I also heard Abū Zurʿah say, ‘When Ibn Isḥāq is the sole narrator of a report, his solitary narration is not authoritative.’

He then cited for him the ḥadīth concerning recitation behind the imām (2), and I heard him say, ‘He was…’