There is some strangeness and irregularity in this report, and Allah knows best.

Al-Bukhārī relates—through ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd, from Shuʿbah, from Yasār Abū al-Ḥakam, from Thābit, from Anas—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed by some boys who were playing and greeted them with salām (1).

Muslim (2) also transmits it through another route from Shuʿbah.

His ﷺ Jest and Good-Humour

Ibn Lahīʿah said: ʿUmārah ibn Ghaziyyah narrated to me, from Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, from Anas, who said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was among the most light-hearted of people with a child.” (3)

The ḥadīth of his playing with the little brother of that boy, Abū ʿUmayr, has already been mentioned, together with his words,

“Abū ʿUmayr, what happened to the little bird?”

He said this to remind the child of a small bird he had been playing with that had died, consoling him in the familiar way people tease very young children.

Imām Aḥmad (4) reported: Khalaf ibn al-Walīd narrated to us; Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allah narrated to us; from Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl, from Anas ibn Mālik: A man came to the Prophet ﷺ asking him for a mount. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

“We shall seat you on the offspring of a she-camel.”

The man said, “O Messenger of Allah, what would I do with the offspring of a she-camel?”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied,

“Do camels give birth to anything other than she-camels?”

Abū Dāwūd (5) transmitted it through Wahb ibn Baqiyyah, and al-Tirmidhī (6) through Qutaybah—both from Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Wāsiṭī al-Ṭaḥḥān—with this same chain. Al-Tirmidhī remarked: “Sound, yet rare.”

Abū Dāwūd adds in this chapter (7): Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn narrated to us; Ḥajjāj ibn Muḥammad narrated to us; Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq narrated to us, from Abū Isḥāq, from al-ʿAyzār ibn Ḥurayth, from al-Nuʿmān ibn Bashīr, who said:

Abū Bakr sought permission to enter upon the Prophet ﷺ and heard ʿĀʾishah speaking in a raised voice to the Messenger of Allah. When he entered he reached for her to strike her, saying, “Do I see you raising your voice over the Messenger of Allah!” The Prophet ﷺ held him back, and Abū Bakr left in anger. After he had gone out, the Messenger of Allah said,

“Did you see how I protected you from that man?”

A few days later Abū Bakr again sought permission to enter upon the Messenger of Allah