He learned ḥadith from: his maternal grandfather Yazīd ibn Muḥammad al-ʿUqaylī; Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ṣāʾigh; Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dabarī; Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Tirmidhī; ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz; Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Balkhī, the associate of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā; Abū Yaḥyā ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Masrah; Bishr ibn Mūsā al-Asadī; Muḥammad ibn al-Faḍl al-Qusṭānī, whom he met in Rayy; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal; Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān ibn Ṣāliḥ; Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Abbār; Abū Jaʿfar Muṭayyan; ʿUbayd ibn Ghannām; Ādam ibn Mūsā, the colleague of al-Bukhārī; Ḥātim ibn Manṣūr al-Shāshī; Aḥmad ibn Dāwūd al-Makkī—who narrated to him in Egypt; Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb ibn al-Ḍurays; and many others.
Those who transmitted from him include: Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Nāfiʿ al-Khuzāʿī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Muqriʾ, Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Dakhīl, and a number of others.
Maslama ibn al-Qāsim (1) said: “Al-ʿUqaylī was highly esteemed and of great standing; I have never seen anyone like him. He authored many works. Whenever a ḥadīth scholar came to him he would say, ‘Read from your own book,’ and he would not bring out his master copy.
“We discussed this matter and said, ‘Either he is among the most accurate memorizers, or he is among the greatest liars.’
“So we gathered and agreed to write down some of the ḥadiths he himself transmitted, adding to them and omitting parts, then present them to him to test him. When we came to him he said to me, ‘Read,’ and I read them out.
“When I reached the additions and omissions he noticed at once. He took the booklet from me, picked up a pen, and corrected everything from memory. We left his presence delighted, convinced that he was indeed one of the finest memorizers of ḥadith (2).