Either way...

Either way, there was no strong proof for the existence to Abdullah Ibn Saba during the time of Uthman and Ali, except as Abdullah bin Wahab al-Saba'i who was the leader of Khawarij, as mentioned earlier. One also finds that "Saba'i" tag in persons' names, who belong to the tribes of Qahtan, ceased especially in Iraq, the origin of the fairy tale, after that date.

This naming convention then continued throughout the second and third century (AH) in the areas of Yemen, Egypt and Spain, where a number of Sunni Hadith narrators (including some of the narrators of the traditions in six Sunni collections) were labeled Saba'i due to their relation to Saba Ibn Yashjub and not Abdullah Ibn Saba the Jew who created disturbance per Sayf's allegations.

Later as the books of the Tabari and others spread the fairy tale across the land, the naming convention of Saba'i was dropped every where. Whence this mention in the books is used to indicate a following to Abdullah Ibn Saba alone, even though they never enjoyed existence outside the covers of those books. The tale evolved over the years to include a multiple of its creator's persona and beliefs.

At the same time, while Abdullah Ibn Saba was Ibn al-Sawda' to the inventor of the tale (Sayf), you find them becoming two separate persons around the 5th century, along with the variation in their news (see "al-Farq" by Abdul-Qahir Ibn Tahir al- Baghdadi). We can delimit these variations in the fifth century onwards, in three personalites: Abdullah bin Wahab al-Saba'i, head of the Khawarij, who opposed Imam Ali (AS).

Abdullah Ibn Saba who established the Saba'iya clan/group which believes in the deity of Ali. He and his followers were burnt with fire shortly after. Abdullah Ibn Saba, also known as Ibn al-Sawda' to those who reported from Sayf. He was the creator of the Saba'iya clan/group who believed in successorship to Ali, who agitated against Uthman and then they started the war of Jamal (Camel).

The first one existed in reality, and some of the traditions related to Abdullah Ibn Saba actually refers to this man who was the leader of al- Khawarij. For the second person, there are few traditions which was mentioned earlier, yet they were not authenticated by either schools. The third personage, however, was the imagination of Sayf who perhaps invented it based on the original story he heard about the first and the second persons, and then attaching his own story to them.