as do al-Mufaḍḍal, Ḥaywah, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Suwayd, all of them on the authority of ʿAyyāsh ibn ʿAbbās.

Al-ʿUqaylī said: “Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us; Ibn ʿAlī narrated to us; I heard Ibn Abī Maryam say, ‘I once reported to Mālik a ḥadīth that Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb had related to us from him. When I asked Mālik about it, he replied, “Fabricated.” I repeated another one to him and he said, “Fabricated.”’

Al-Khaḍir ibn Dāwūd said: “Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh—meaning Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal—asked about Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb al-Miṣrī. He said, ‘He used to relate from memory and there was nothing objectionable about him, though he did suffer slips in memorization.’ I then mentioned to him one of his reports—from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from ʿAmrah, from ʿĀʾishah—that the Prophet ﷺ used to recite in Witr… He exclaimed, ‘Ha! Who could carry this?’

Al-ʿUqaylī added: “This was narrated to us by Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb al-ʿAllāf; Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Ayyūb narrated to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from ʿAmrah, from ʿĀʾishah: ‘The Prophet ﷺ would recite in the first rakʿah of Witr Sabbih isma rabbika al-Aʿlā (‘Glorify the Name of your Lord, the Most High’), in the second Qul yā ayyuhā al-kāfirūn (‘Say: O disbelievers’), and in the third Qul huwa Allāhu aḥad (‘Say: He is Allah, One’) together with Qul aʿūdhu birabbi al-falaq (‘Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of daybreak’) and Qul aʿūdhu birabbi al-nās (‘Say: I seek refuge with the Lord of mankind’) (1).”

Al-ʿUqaylī remarked: “The inclusion of the two refuge sūrahs is not authentic.”

Abū Aḥmad ibn ʿAdī (2) said: “He was one of the jurists and scholars of Egypt, and it is also said….”