217 – ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would begin the prayer with the takbīr and begin the recitation with: ‘All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.’ When he bowed, he neither lifted his head up high nor lowered it too far, but kept it in between. When he rose from bowing, he would not go down into prostration until he had stood upright, and when he raised his head from prostration he would not prostrate again until he was seated straight. In every two rakʿahs he would recite the tashahhud. He would spread his left foot and keep the right one upright. He forbade al-ʿuqbah al-shayṭān (the devil’s perch), and he forbade a man to spread his forearms the way a predatory beast does. He concluded the prayer with the taslīm.” Muslim transmitted it, though it contains a hidden flaw. (1)

Grade of the ḥadīth
The report is ṣaḥīḥ according to Muslim. As for the defect to which the author—the ḥāfiẓ—refers: Muslim related it through the narration of Abū al-Jawzāʾ from ʿĀʾishah, whereas Abū al-Jawzāʾ never heard directly from her, so the chain is disconnected. It has also been critiqued because Muslim, may Allah have mercy on him, received it from al-Awzāʿī by correspondence (mukātabah) rather than by direct audition (samāʿ).

Vocabulary
– al-qirāʾah (the recitation): coordinated to “the prayer.”
– lam yushkhiṣ (he did not raise): with ḍammah on the yāʾ, sukūn on the shīn, kasrah on the khāʾ, and a final ṣād; from shakhaṣa, “to raise.” Something shākhiṣ is anything elevated; here it means he did not raise his head above the level of his back.