It is now clear (1) that Anas’s report disapproves of those who shorten their bowing and prostration to an excessive degree, just as it disapproves of those who prolong the standing unduly. This is exactly what Anas (2) described—and what the other Companions described as well.
Muslim relates in his Ṣaḥīḥ, and Abū Dāwūd in his Sunan (4), through the chain of Hilāl ibn Abī Ḥamīd (5), from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā (6), from al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib (7), who said:
“I observed the prayer performed with Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and I found that his standing, his bowing, his upright posture after bowing, his prostration, his sitting between the two prostrations, and his sitting from the salām until he turned to leave were all almost equal in length.” (8)
(1) In MS B the reading is: bayna.
(2) In MSS B and C it is written with a single waw.
(3) The printed edition reads: wa-rawa ("and he narrated").
(4) The words "in his Sunan" are absent from MSS B and C.
(5) He is Hilal ibn Abi Humayd al-Juhani, their mawlā—also recorded as Ibn Humayd—a Kufan of the Sadfi clan. Ibn Hajar reports that Ibn Maʿin, Ibn Hibban, and al-Nasaʾi deemed him reliable, and both al-Bukhari and Muslim (among others) transmit his hadiths. See: Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 11:77, no. 122.
(6) He is ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Abi Layla al-Ansari al-Madani, of the second generation of the Successors, an imam, memorizer, and trustworthy narrator; he died at the battle of al-Jamajim in 86 AH. See: Ibn Hajar, Taqrib al-Tahdhib 1:496, no. 1094.
(7) The distinguished Companion is al-Baraʾ ibn ʿAzib ibn al-Harith ibn ʿAdi of the Aws branch of the Ansar. One of the younger Companions, he fought alongside the Messenger of Allah in fourteen expeditions, stood with ʿAli at the Battles of the Camel, Siffin, and against the Khawarij, and earlier took part in the conquest of al-Rayy and the campaign of Tustar with Abu Musa. See: al-Idafa 1:147, s.v. "Baʾ".
(8) Sahih Muslim, Book of Prayer, chapter “Maintaining balance in the pillars of the prayer while keeping it moderately brief,” hadith no. 471 (1:343).