I say: This is a good chain of transmission, were it not for the fact that Ibn Abi Hatim mentioned this Ibrahim in al-Jarh wa al-Ta'dil (1/1/89) and said: “I asked my father about him, and he replied: ‘I do not know him.’” He also mentioned that al-Nadr ibn Hisham al-Asbahani and Abd al-Razzaq ibn Bakr al-Asbahani narrated from him.

I say: Thus, he meets Ibn Hibban’s criterion in al-Thiqat, for he customarily includes in it anyone from whom even one person has narrated. How then could this not be so when two have narrated from him, as you have seen? Indeed, a third also narrated from him: Abd Allah ibn Dawud ibn al-Hudhayl, as al-Hafiz mentioned in al-Lisan, although I have not identified him at present. Unlike the first two, however, both of them are trustworthy and have biographical notices in al-Jarh wa al-Ta'dil.

Moreover, he is given a biography in al-Tabaqat (1/190–191) and al-Akhbar (1/172–173), which indicates his righteous character. They stated—and al-Hafiz followed them in this—that: “He was devoted to night prayer and worship. For forty years, he was not known to have a bed. He used to dye his head and beard.”

Furthermore, he was corroborated. Ahmad ibn Sulayman ibn Yusuf al-Uqayli said: “My father narrated to us: al-Nu'man ibn Abd al-Salam narrated to us: Abu al-'Awwam narrated to us,” with the same chain. Abu Nu'aym also recorded it (1/113) in the biography of Ahmad ibn Sulayman al-Uqayli. He did not mention any narrator criticism or accreditation concerning him, but he cited three hadiths narrated from him by three shaykhs, all of whom are trustworthy:

1. Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ibrahim, Abu Ahmad al-Qadi al-'Assal, the narrator of this hadith from him.
2. Sulayman ibn Ahmad al-Tabarani, the hadith master and author of the three Mu'jams.