He heard ḥadith from Isḥāq ibn Shāhīn, ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, Muḥammad ibn Hāshim al-Baʿlabakkī, al-Haytham ibn Marwān al-ʿAnsī, Abū Saʿīd al-Ashajj, Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿīd al-Jawharī, Muḥammad ibn Bashshār, Zayd ibn Akhzam, Sahl ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Anṭākī, Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā al-Zamin, Muḥammad ibn Rāfiʿ, Isḥāq al-Kawsaj, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Zuhrī, Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Wahbī, Saʿīd ibn Raḥmah al-Maṣṣīṣī, and al-Ḥusayn ibn Sayyār al-Ḥarrānī—the companion of Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd—as well as numerous others in Khurāsān, Iraq, the Ḥijaz, Syria, Egypt, and the Jazīrah region.
He composed major works and excelled both in knowledge and in practice.
Among those who transmitted from him were the “Imām of the Imāms” Abū Bakr ibn Khuzaymah—despite his seniority and distinction—Abū Ḥāmid ibn al-Sharqī, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb ibn al-Akhram, the ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAlī al-Naysābūrī, Abū Isḥāq al-Muzakkī, Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥākim, Abū ʿAmr ibn Ḥamdān, Ḥusaynak ibn ʿAlī al-Tamīmī, Zāhir ibn Aḥmad al-Sarakhsi, Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Ḥajjājī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Bālūyī, and many others.
Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥākim said: “He was one of those who travelled extensively in search of hadith, marked by integrity and piety, and he belonged to the ranks of the diligent worshippers.”
I heard Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Yaʿqūb, the ḥāfiẓ, say: “When Muḥammad ibn al-Musayyab would read to us, the moment he said, ‘The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said…,’ he would weep until our hearts went out to him.”
He also said: “I heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Kilābī say: ‘Muḥammad ibn al-Musayyab al-Arghiyānī wept so much that he lost his sight.’”
And I heard Abū Isḥāq al-Muzakkī say: I heard Muḥammad ibn al-Musayyab say: I heard al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafah say: “I saw Yazīd ibn Hārūn in Wāsiṭ, and he had the most beautiful pair of eyes; then I saw him with only one eye, and later I saw him after he had gone completely blind. I said to him, ‘Abū Khālid, what became of your eyes?’”