All cells have the same voltage and run from 3.1v to 4.2v (average 3.6v), so to get a 48v battery, you put 13 in series, 10 for a 36v one. Each cell type has different other characteristics -mainly the amount of charge in them, expressed in Ah or Wh, and the rate at which they can give it, expressed as the continuous current.
When you buy a battery, it needs to be able to deliver the current that your controller allows continuously, with a bit of headroom, so if you have a 15A controller, you need a 20A continuous battery.
You need enough charge in the battery to do your rides. For a legal ebike, an average figure would be about 12 to 15wh/mile, so if you always want to ride 30 miles, you'd need over 450wh.
Watt-hours (wh)is a more accurate way of expressing battery capacity than amp-hours (Ah). A 10ah 48v battery is 10 x 48 = 480wh.
The cells normally have a designation that relates to capacity, like 18650 22P, where 22 means 2.2Ah. The P is the variant relating to other characteristics, like life and discharge rate. SAMSUNG 35E means 3.5ah (actually 3.45) and is capable of delivering 8A continuously, so 13S5p would be 13 x 3.6 = 48v (approx), 5 x 3.45 = 17Ah and 5 x 8 = 40A.
That's what the cell-pack can deliver, but the management board (BMS) has its own current limit. Only the battery supplier knows what that is. They normally write it in the listing. I'd fit a 30A or 35A BMS to a cell-pack like that.
Batteries degrade with use, so whatever characteristics you need, always try for 20% extra from the cell-pack to avoid problems in the future. The BMS won't degrade, so it will always allow the same current, but if you had a 20A cell-pack, a 20A BMS and a 20A controller, you'd start getting your first cut-outs pretty soon.