Al-Bazzār also narrated it through the chain of Mubārak ibn Faḍālah, from ʿUbayd Allāh, from Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ, with wording to the same effect (1).
He likewise transmitted it on the authority of Muḥammad ibn ʿAjlān from Saʿīd al-Maqburī (2),
and on the authority of Qatādah, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ (3).

In substance, when Moses led them to the gate of the town they were commanded to enter in prostration—that is, bowing, humble and grateful to God for the great conquest He had promised them—and to say as they entered, “ḥiṭṭah,” meaning: “Remove from us our former sins, the sins that issued from our earlier refusal.”

For that reason, when the Messenger of God ﷺ entered Mecca on the day of its conquest, he rode in on his she-camel with his head lowered in humility, praising and thanking God, so much so that the tip of his beard almost touched the saddle-pommel. Around him were troops whose eyes alone could be seen, especially the “Green Battalion” in whose midst was the Messenger of God ﷺ himself. After he entered the city he performed a ritual bath and then prayed eight rakʿahs—the prayer of thanksgiving for victory, according to one group of scholars. Others held that it was the Ḍuḥā prayer, their only evidence being that it occurred during the forenoon.

The Children of Israel, however, contravened the command in word and deed: they crawled into the gate on their backsides, saying, “ḥabbah fī shaʿrah” (“a grain in a hair”)—in another wording, “ḥinṭah fī shaʿrah”—thus altering the phrase they had been instructed to say and making a mockery of it. Concerning them God said in Sūrat al-Aʿrāf, a Meccan chapter:

“‘Dwell in this town and eat of it wherever you wish,’ they were told, ‘and say: “Relieve us!” and enter the gate in prostration; We shall forgive you your sins and multiply the reward of those who excel. But the wrongdoers among them changed the word that had been said to them, so We sent down upon the wrongdoers a plague from heaven because of the evil they had been doing.’” (7:161–162)

And in Sūrat al-Baqarah, revealed in Madinah, addressing them He said:

“‘Enter this town and eat freely of whatever you will, and enter the gate in prostration and say: “Relieve us,” so that We may forgive you your sins and increase the reward of those who do good.’ But the wrongdoers substituted another saying for that which had been told them, so We sent down upon the wrongdoers a punishment from heaven because of their defiantly disobedient conduct.” (2:58–59)

Al-Thawrī related from al-Aʿmash, from al-Minhāl ibn ʿAmr, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās regarding the verse “and enter the gate in prostration,” that it means: “bowing as you pass through a low doorway.” Al-Ḥākim, Ibn Jarīr, and Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded it. The same report comes through al-ʿAwfī from Ibn ʿAbbās, and al-Thawrī likewise transmitted it from Ibn Isḥāq on the authority of al-Barāʾ.

Mujāhid, al-Suddi, and al-Ḍaḥḥāk said: the gate in question is Bāb Ḥiṭṭah in Bayt Īlyā—Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis).