Al-Ḥākim cites him, saying, “He was the foremost scholar of his age in Nīshāpūr regarding the science of ḥadith and the evaluation of transmitters; he compiled works on the shaykhs and on the ʿilal (hidden defects) (1).”

Al-Ḥākim adds: “He received ḥadith from Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh; Abū Qudāmah al-Sarakhsī; ʿAmr ibn Zurārah; al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḍaḥḥāk; ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Jarrāḥ; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Rammāḥ; Muḥammad ibn Abān al-Balkhī and his peers in Nīshāpūr; Muḥammad ibn Mihrān al-Jammāl; Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd; Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr; Zunayj of al-Rayy; and from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—through question sessions—together with Dāwūd ibn Rushayd, Aḥmad ibn Manīʿ, and their contemporaries in Baghdad.

He also heard from Isḥāq ibn Shāhīn and Bishr ibn Ādam in Wāsiṭ; from ʿAmr ibn ʿAlī al-Fallās, Bundār, and Naṣr ibn ʿAlī in Baṣrah; from ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah, Abū Kurayb, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Abān in Kūfah; and from Abū Muṣʿab, Yaḥyā ibn Sulaymān ibn Naḍlah, Hārūn ibn Mūsā al-Farawī, Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khubzah, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿImrān, and Ibn Abī ʿUmar al-ʿAdanī in Mecca.

Those who transmitted from him include Abū Yaḥyā al-Khuffāf, the Imām of the Imāms Ibn Khuzaymah, and most of our own shaykhs.

I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿd say, “I have never seen anyone like Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Ṭālib, nor has he seen anyone comparable to himself; I attended his gatherings for six years.”

He also said: I heard ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Ḥāfiẓ on more than one occasion state, “Our city has produced only three masters of ḥadith: Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā, Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj, and Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Ṭālib” (2).