48 – ʿAli (may Allah be pleased with him) described the Prophet’s ablution, saying: “Then he rinsed his mouth and blew the water out of his nose three times, rinsing and blowing from the same handful with which he took the water.” Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasāʾī recorded it.⦗1⦘

Hadith grading
The ḥadīth is authentic.
The author of al-Talkhīṣ states that the reports in which rinsing the mouth and expelling the water from the nose are performed with a single handful, transmitted from ʿAli (may Allah be pleased with him), are found in Musnad Aḥmad (626, 874), Sunan Ibn Mājah (2405), and the present narration. He also mentions a fourth report that separates the mouth-rinsing from the nose-cleansing. Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ rejected that version, but the author supports it, saying: “Ibn al-Sakan narrated in his Ṣaḥīḥ from Shaqīq ibn Salamah: ‘I witnessed ʿAli and ʿUthmān perform wuḍūʾ three times for each limb, separating the mouth-rinsing from the nose-cleansing; then they said, ‘This is how we saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) perform wuḍūʾ.’” This explicit statement proves the separation, nullifying Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ’s objection. The chain of transmission is sound, and Ibn al-Mulqin is among those who graded it authentic.

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• kaf (palm): grammatically feminine; it extends from the wrist-bone to the fingertips and here refers to a single scoop of water.
• tamadhmada (he rinsed his mouth): from maḍmaḍa – yumaḍmiḍu – maḍmaḍah; it means to swirl water intentionally inside the mouth.
• istanthara (he expelled water from his nose): from nathara – yanthuru – nathr, form I (like qatala and ḍaraba). Istinshāq is drawing water into the nasal cavity; istinthār is blowing it back out.