He used to dye his clothes and anoint himself with saffron. Someone asked him, "Why do you dye your clothes and anoint yourself with saffron?"He replied, "Because I saw that it was the dye most beloved to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He would anoint himself with it and dye his clothes with it."
حدثنا إسحاق بن عيسى حدثنا عبد الله بن زيد بن أسلم عن أبيه
أنه كان يصبغ ثيابه ويدهن بالزعفران فقيل له لم تصبغ ثيابك وتدهن بالزعفران قال لأني رأيته أحب الأصباغ إلى رسول الله ﷺ يدهن به ويصبغ به ثيابه
Its isnad is sahih. Abdullah bin Zayd bin Aslam Madani is trustworthy. Ahmad, Bazzar, and others deemed him trustworthy, while others criticized him, among them Nasai, who mentioned him among the daif narrators in position 18, saying, "He is not strong." Bukhari did not mention him among them, but rather discussed him in Tarikh Saghir 205–206, where he stated that Madini judged Abdul-Rahman bin Zayd as daif, and said, "As for his two brothers, Usamah and Abdullah, soundness has been reported concerning them." Tirmidhi said in his Sunan 443, "I heard Abu Dawud Sijzi, meaning Sulayman bin Ashath [the author of the Sunan], say, 'I asked Ahmad bin Hanbal about Abdul-Rahman bin Zayd bin Aslam, and he said, His brother Abdullah, there is no harm in him.' And I heard Muhammad [meaning Bukhari] mention that Ali bin Abdullah [that is, Ibn Madini] judged Abdul-Rahman bin Zayd bin Aslam as daif, and said, 'Abdullah bin Zayd bin Aslam is trustworthy.'"The hadith appears in Muntaqa 726, 727, where it is stated, "Ahmad narrated it, and likewise Abu Dawud and Nasai narrated it similarly," and in their wording, "he used to dye all his garments, even his turban." The hadith of Abu Dawud is in his Sunan 4:91, through the route of Darawardi from Zayd bin Aslam. I did not find it in Nasai, and perhaps it is in Sunan al-Kubra. See also 5338.