Many scholars of hadith—indeed, scholars of other disciplines as well—sang his praises.

Abu ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Akhram said, “Hardly anything that is soundly established in hadith slips past al-Bukhārī and Muslim.” (1)

Al-Khaṭīb (2) narrates from Abū ʿAmr Muḥammad ibn Ḥamdān al-Ḥayrī, who said: “I asked the ḥadith master Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn ʿUqda about al-Bukhārī and Muslim—which of the two was more learned? He replied, ‘Al-Bukhārī is a scholar, and Muslim is a scholar.’ I repeated the question several times and he kept giving the same answer. Then he said to me, ‘O Abū ʿAmr! Al-Bukhārī occasionally errs concerning the scholars of Syria. He acquired their books and examined them, and he might mention one of them by his kunya in one place and by his given name somewhere else, imagining them to be two separate men. Muslim, on the other hand, seldom slips up, (3) because he wrote down maqāṭīʿ and mursal reports.’

Al-Khaṭīb (4) remarks, “Muslim merely followed al-Bukhārī’s path: he studied his science and patterned himself after him. When al-Bukhārī came to Nīshāpūr near the end of his life, Muslim attached himself to him and kept constant company with him.” (5)

ʿUbayd Allah ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān al-Ṣayrafī told me: “I heard Abū al-Ḥasan al-Dāraqutnī say, ‘Had it not been for al-Bukhārī, Muslim would neither have gone nor come.’” (6)

Al-Khaṭīb (7) also said: “Abū Bakr al-Munkadir (8) informed us—Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Ḥāfiẓ narrated to us—Abū Naṣr (9) ibn Muḥammad al-Zarrād related to me: I heard Abū Ḥāmid Aḥmad ibn Ḥamdūn al-Qaṣṣār say: I heard Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj come to Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī. He kissed him between the eyes and said, ‘Let me kiss your feet, O teacher of teachers, master of the traditionists, physician of hadith and its hidden defects! You were narrated by Muḥammad ibn Salām—Mukhallad ibn Yazīd al-Ḥarrānī narrated to us—from Ibn Jurayj, from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, from Suhayl, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ…’