of the Four Sunan. The former—Sulaymān ibn ʿUmar—does have a biographical entry in al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl, 2/1/131, written by Abū Ḥātim about him; and he is mentioned as well in Ibn Ḥibbān’s al-Thiqāt, 8/280, where Ibn Ḥibbān says:

“Our shaykh al-Khaḍr ibn Aḥmad ibn Qaydahūz in Ḥarrān—and others—narrated from him. He died in 249 AH.”

As for Abū ʿAmr ibn Khālid al-Raqī, I have found no notice for him except an extremely brief one in Ibn Ḥibbān, 8/444, from which nothing of substance can be drawn. Ibn Ḥibbān writes:

“He narrates from Mūsā ibn Aʿyan, and his son Sulaymān ibn ʿUmar ibn Khālid related from him.”

I say: he therefore counts among the unknowns, and Allah knows best.

What remains is to examine the other route that goes back to Jābir; in reality it returns to the first route related by al-Nasāʾī. Al-Ṭabarānī reports in al-Awsat, 1/387/675 (printed edition):

“Aḥmad narrated to us; Manṣūr ibn Abī Muzāḥim narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh narrated to us, from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī, from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Jābir, who said: ‘Abū Qatādah had a tress of hair, and he asked the Prophet ﷺ about it. He replied, “Honor it and oil it.”’ ”

Al-Ṭabarānī then remarks: “No one transmitted it from Yaḥyā except Ismāʿīl.”

I say: Ismāʿīl is reliable, but he is weak in his narrations from the Ḥijāzīs, and this report is among them. Ibn Muqaddam has followed him, as noted earlier, yet he is a mudallis; it is quite possible that he took it from Ismāʿīl and then concealed his source. In that case this corroboration carries no weight, and this may be why al-Ṭabarānī stated categorically that no one narrated it from Yaḥyā except Ismāʿīl. Allah knows best.