Al-Tirmidhī (1) and al-Nasāʾī also transmitted the report through Abū al-Mundhir Sallām ibn Sulaymān. Ibn Mājah (2) related it from Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, who narrated from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, from ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Nujūd, from al-Ḥārith al-Bakrī, omitting Abū Wāʾil. Imām Aḥmad (3) recorded it in the same manner—from Abū Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh, from ʿĀṣim, from al-Ḥārith—whereas the correct chain, as noted earlier, is: ʿĀṣim → Abū Wāʾil → al-Ḥārith.

The Delegation of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī ʿAqīl

Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī (4) said: “Abū ʿAbd Allāh Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Sūsī narrated to us; Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Baghdādī narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd narrated to us; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Yūnus narrated to us; Zuhayr narrated to us; Abū Khālid Yazīd al-Asadī narrated to us; ʿAwn ibn Abī Juḥayfah narrated to us from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlqamah al-Thaqafī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī ʿAqīl (5), who said:

‘I set out as part of a delegation to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. We arrived and tethered our mounts at his door, and there was no man on earth we disliked more than the one we were about to meet. Yet when we had entered and then come out, there was no man on earth we loved more than the one we had just visited.

One of us said, “O Messenger of Allah, would you not ask your Lord for a kingdom like that of Solomon?”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ laughed and replied:

“Perhaps your companion (6) has with Allah something better than the kingdom of Solomon. Allah ﷿ has not sent a prophet without granting him a supplication: some used it for worldly gain and were given what they asked; others used it against their people when they disobeyed, and the people were destroyed. Allah has granted me a supplication, and I have reserved it with my Lord as an intercession for my community on the Day of Resurrection.” (7)'}