and Ibn al-Aʿrābī, ʿAlī ibn al-Mughīrah, Salamah ibn ʿĀṣim, and al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār.

Those who narrated from him were: Nifṭawayh, Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Yazīdī, al-Akḥfash al-Ṣaghīr, Ibn al-Anbārī, Abū ʿUmar al-Zāhid, Aḥmad ibn Kāmil, and Ibn Miqsam, who conveyed his Dictations (Amālī).

Al-Khaṭīb (1) said: “He is reliable and authoritative, devout and upright, and famed for the breadth of his memorization.”

It was also said that he did not employ affected eloquence in ordinary speech.

Al-Mubarrad declared, “Of all the Kufans, Thaʿlab is the most learned.” When al-Farrāʾ was mentioned to him, he replied, “He does not reach even a tenth of his knowledge.” (2)

He used to belittle himself and never considered himself of any consequence.

Ibn Mujāhid said: “I saw the Prophet ﷺ in a dream, and he said to me, ‘Convey my greetings to Abū al-ʿAbbās and tell him: You are the possessor of far-reaching knowledge.’” (3)

Al-Qifṭī (4) remarked: “He would rehearse with me the books of al-Kisāʾī and al-Farrāʾ, yet he was unfamiliar with the Basran school’s approach and had not cultivated analogical reasoning.” (5)

Al-Dīnwārī said: “Al-Mubarrad had a better grasp of Sībawayh’s Book than Thaʿlab.”