Another report
Abu ʿIsa al-Tirmidhi (1) said: “Ismaʿil ibn Musa narrated to us; [Muhammad ibn ʿUmar ibn] al-Rumi narrated to us; Sharik narrated to us, from [Salamah ibn] Kuhayl, from Suwayd ibn Ghafalah, from al-Sunabihi, from ʿAli, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,
‘I am the House of Wisdom and ʿAli is its Door.’
He then commented, ‘This hadith is gharib, indeed munkar.’
He added: ‘Some people relate this hadith from Ibn ʿAbbas.’ I say: It was transmitted by Suwayd ibn Saʿid, from Sharik, from Salamah, from al-Sunabihi, from ʿAli, as a marfuʿ tradition:
‘I am the City of Knowledge and ʿAli is its Gate; whoever seeks knowledge, let him come to the gate of the city.’ (2)
As for the narration of Ibn ʿAbbas, Ibn ʿAdi (3) recorded it through the route of Ahmad ibn Salamah Abu ʿAmr al-Jurjani: ‘Abu Muʿawiyah narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Mujahid, from Ibn ʿAbbas, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
‘I am the City of Knowledge and ʿAli is its Gate; whoever desires knowledge should approach it by its gate.’
Ibn ʿAdi then remarked: ‘This hadith is known through Abu al-Salt al-Harawi from Abu Muʿawiyah; Ahmad ibn Salamah and a group of weak transmitters stole it from him’—thus he spoke, may Allah have mercy on him.
Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Qasim ibn Mihriz also narrated from Ibn Maʿin that he said: ‘Ibn Ayman informed me that Abu Muʿawiyah used to recite this hadith in earlier times and then abandoned it.’ He added: ‘Abu al-Salt was a wealthy man who honored (4) the shaykhs, and they would relate such reports to him.’ Ibn ʿAsakir transmitted it with a dim chain from Jaʿfar al-Sadiq, from his father, from his grandfather, from Jabir ibn ʿAbd Allah, raising it to the Prophet; he likewise related it by another route from Jabir. Ibn ʿAdi said, ‘That too is fabricated.’ Abu al-Fath al-Azdi (5) declared: ‘Nothing in this chapter is authentic.’
Another report (6) similar to the one just mentioned: Ibn ʿAdi (7) said: ‘Ahmad ibn Hamdun al-Naysaburi narrated to us; Ibn Bint Abi Usamah—namely Jaʿfar ibn Hadhayl—narrated to us; Dhirar ibn Surad narrated to us; Yahya ibn ʿIsa al-Ramli narrated to us, from al-Aʿmash, from Ibn ʿAbayah, from Ibn ʿAbbas, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said:
“ʿAli is the repository of my knowledge.”’