Abu al-Hasan al-ʿAtiqi said, “I was in the company of Abu al-Hasan when Abu al-Husayn al-Baydawi came to him with a solitary (gharīb) narration, hoping he would read some of it to him. Abu al-Hasan declined, offering a few excuses, and remarked, ‘That report is singular.’
He then asked him to dictate some hadith. Abu al-Hasan thereupon dictated, from memory, an entire session containing more than twenty hadiths, every one of which had the same text: ‘How excellent is a gift sent in advance of a need.’ (1)
The man left, but later returned bearing a present for him. Abu al-Hasan received him warmly and, again from memory, dictated seventeen hadiths whose common wording was: ‘When a nobleman of a people comes to you, honour him.’ (2)
I say: This account is authentic; al-Khatib related it from al-ʿAtiqi. It shows the vast scope of the Imam’s memorisation and that he hinted at desiring something in return—a permissibility upheld by some scholars. Al-Daraqutni was probably in need at the time; he would accept the gratuities of Daʿlaj al-Sijzi and others, and the vizier Ibn Hinzabah likewise sent him a considerable sum of gold for compiling the Musnad for him.”}
(1) Al-Tabarani records it (1/294/1) through the chain of Yahya ibn Saʿid al-ʿAttar → Yahya ibn al-ʿAlaʾ → Talha ibn ʿUbayd → al-Husayn ibn ʿAli. Ibn Hibban says of Yahya ibn Saʿid: “He transmits fabrications from reliable narrators; it is impermissible to cite him as evidence.” His own shaykh here, Yahya ibn al-ʿAlaʾ, is an outright liar who manufactures hadith. Abu Nuʿaym (Akhbar Isbahan 2/75) and al-Khatib (8/166) also transmit the report from ʿAʾisha. In Abu Nuʿaym’s isnad appears ʿUthman ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn ʿUmar ibn Saʿd: Ibn Maʿin said, “He used to lie,” Ibn al-Madini, “extremely weak,” al-Bukhari, “people abandoned him,” and both al-Nasaʾi and al-Daraqutni, “discarded.” In al-Khatib’s chain stands ʿAmr ibn Khalid al-Aʿmash, likewise branded a liar by several leading scholars. Hence the report is baseless.
(2) A hasan (reliable) hadith. Ibn Majah relates it from Ibn ʿUmar; al-Bazzar, Ibn Khuzaymah, al-Tabarani, Ibn ʿAdi and al-Bayhaqi from Jarir; al-Bazzar from Abu Hurayra; Ibn ʿAdi from Muʿadh and Abu Qatada; al-Hakim from Jabir; al-Tabarani from Ibn ʿAbbas and ʿAbd Allah ibn Hamza; Ibn ʿAsakir from Anas and ʿAdi ibn Hatim; and al-Dulabi in al-Kuna as well as Ibn ʿAsakir from Abu Rashid ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn ʿAbd… See al-Jamiʿ al-saghir with its commentary 1/241–242 and al-Maqasid al-hasana, p. 32.