It is also reported (1) that al-Bukhārī said, “I compiled this book from roughly six hundred thousand hadiths.”
Al-Muʾammal ibn Muḥammad and others transmitted to us; Abū al-Yaman al-Kindī transmitted to us; Abū Manṣūr al-Qazzāz informed us; Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb related; ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAṭṭār in Rayy told me; I heard Abū al-Haytham al-Kushmīhanī; I heard al-Firabrī say: Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl told me, “I did not insert a single hadith into my Ṣaḥīḥ without first bathing and performing two units of prayer.” (2)
Ibn al-Khallāl informed us; al-Hamdānī informed us; al-Salafī informed us; Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Rāzī informed us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Walīd narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Bundār informed us; Abū Aḥmad ibn ʿAdī informed us; I heard al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Bazzār; I heard Ibrāhīm ibn Maʿqil; I heard al-Bukhārī say, “I have included in this book only what is authentic, and I left out much that is authentic so the book would not become too lengthy.” (3)
Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥātim said, “I asked Abū ʿAbd Allāh, ‘Do you commit to memory…’”