At fifteen years of age, Aban met Sulaym ibn Qays who taught him about Shi'a Islam. Eventually, he was entrusted with the book of Sulaym ibn Qays.
After the Battle of Karbala, when he was starting to get old, he went to Shiraz. After that, he went to Basra where he met Hasan al-Basri and asked him about the authenticity of the book. Hasan answered "it’s all true". Aban then went to Mecca where he talked to Sahabas and Taba'een, and all agreed to the events as portrayed in the book. He was still unsure about some of the more explicit parts of the book, so he took it to the Shi'a Imam Ali ibn Hussain, whom happened to be in Mecca that year.
Two old Sahaba were accompanying Ali ibn Hussain: Abu Tufail and Umar ibn Abi-Salman. Ali ibn Hussain told one of the Sahabas to read it for him. For three days, they did nothing but read the book, and at the end Ali ibn Hussain declared the content authentic. Aban became a known and prominent Sahaba to Ali ibn Hussain, and then to the following two Shi'a Imams: Mohammad Baqir ibn Ali and Ja'far al-Sadiq ibn Mohammad Baqir.
