Ibn Dāsah said: Abū Dāwūd wore a garment with one wide sleeve and one narrow sleeve. When he was asked about that, he replied, “The wide sleeve is for my books, and the other is unnecessary.” (1)

Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd reported: I heard my father say, “The best speech is that which enters the ear without asking permission.”

Abū ʿUbayd al-Ājurrī said: I heard Abū Dāwūd say, “Al-Layth related directly from al-Zuhrī, and he also transmitted al-Zuhrī’s material through four intermediaries—Khalid ibn Yazīd, Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd, and Ṣāliḥ ibn Kaysān—all of whom had themselves heard from al-Zuhrī.”

I also heard Abū Dāwūd say, “ʿUmayr ibn Hāniʾ was a Qadarite. He used to pronounce ‘subḥān Allāh’ one hundred thousand times every day. He was put to death at Darayyā during the days of Yazīd ibn al-Walīd, who had urged that he be executed.”

Abū Dāwūd said, “Maslamah ibn Muḥammad—Musaddad transmitted to us from him.” Abū ʿUbayd added: I therefore asked Abū Dāwūd about a report Maslamah narrates from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah: “iyyākum wa al-zanj fa-innahū khalqun mushawwah” (“Beware of the Zanj, for they are a deformed people”). (2) He replied, “Whoever transmits this, regard him as suspect.”

Abū Dāwūd also said, “Yūnus ibn Bukayr is, in my estimation, not an acceptable authority; he and al-Bakkāʾī both heard from Ibn Isḥāq in Rayy.”

Al-Ḥākim stated: “Sulaymān ibn al-Ashʿath al-Sijistānī was born in Sijistān. He and his forefathers still possess properties, estates, and endowments there. He left it to pursue ḥadīth in Basra, where he settled and listened at great length to Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb and Abū al-Nuʿmān.”