Shaykh Janun رحمه الله in his commentary on the book of Malik “Muwatta” mentioned what Qadi Iyad رحمه الله said:
” The Shuyukh of Imam Malik رحمه الله were 900 Shaykhs. 300 were from the Tabi’een and 600 from the Tabi Tabi’een. And Imam Malik says that ‘for thirteen years I was sitting from Fajr prayer to sunset getting knowledge from these Shaykhs.
A different one in a different period. And I have a knowledge from the Tabi’een and the Tabi’ Tabi’een who got it from the Sahaba that I never mentioned to any human being and I never wrote it in books.'{i.e. because not everyone can understand this level of knowledge unless they are a high-level ‘Alim or a pure man of pure faith}”
– Originally posted by Ustadh Luqman al-Andalusi