Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī said:
“Yazīd ibn Ṭahmān (1) al-Raqāshī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn narrated to us and said, ‘Whenever Muʿāwiyah transmitted a report from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, no one ever deemed him suspect (2).’

Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī likewise related, through Suwayd ibn Saʿīd, from Hammām ibn Ismāʿīl, from Abū Qabīl, who said:
‘Each day Muʿāwiyah would dispatch a man called Abū al-Jaysh to go round the gatherings and ask, “Has anyone been blessed with a newborn? Has any delegation arrived?” Once informed, he would have the matter entered into the dīwān—that is, so that a stipend might be allotted (3).’

Another narrator said:
‘Muʿāwiyah was humble; he owned no whip save a tiny play-switch like those children use, which they call makhāriq, and he would strike people with it.’

Hishām ibn ʿAmmār, from ʿAmr ibn Wāqid, from Yūnus ibn Maysarah ibn Ḥalbas, said:
‘I saw Muʿāwiyah in the marketplace of Damascus with a young servant riding behind him. He was wearing a shirt whose collar had been patched as he moved about the markets of Damascus.’

Al-Aʿmash reported from Mujāhid that he said, ‘Had you seen Muʿāwiyah you would have exclaimed, “This is the rightly guided one (al-Mahdī).”’

Hushaym narrated, from al-ʿAwwām, from Jabila ibn Suḥaym, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said:
‘I have never seen anyone with greater dignity than Muʿāwiyah.’ I asked, ‘Not even ʿUmar?’ He replied, ‘ʿUmar was better than he, yet Muʿāwiyah possessed greater dignity than he (4).’

Abū Sufyān al-Ḥīrī transmitted the same report through al-ʿAwwām ibn Ḥawshab and said, ‘I have not seen anyone, after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who had more dignity than Muʿāwiyah.’ It was said, ‘Not even Abū Bakr?’ He answered, ‘Abū Bakr, ʿUmar and ʿUthmān were better than he, but he excelled them in dignity.’ Similar reports are related from Ibn ʿUmar through several chains.

ʿAbd al-Razzāq, from Maʿmar, from Hammām, said: I heard Ibn ʿAbbās say, ‘I have never seen a man more suited to kingship than Muʿāwiyah.’

Ḥanbal ibn Isḥāq reported: Abū Nuʿaym narrated to us; Ibn Abī ʿUtaybah narrated, from a shaykh of Madinah, who said that Muʿāwiyah declared, ‘I am the first of the kings.’

Ibn Abī Khaythamah said: Hārūn ibn Maʿrūf narrated to us; Ḍamrah (5) narrated to us, from Ibn Shawdhub, who said, ‘Muʿāwiyah used to say, “I am the first of the kings and the last of the caliphs.”’