Al-Ḥajjāj—whose kunya was Abū Ibrāhīm (1) al-Wāsiṭī, a resident of Baghdad known as “the harīsa-seller” (2)—was branded a liar by Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn (3), Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (4), and al-Dāraqutnī (5), and more than one critic, among them Ibn ʿAdī (6), accused him of fabricating ḥadīth.

Al-Bazzār (7) and Abū Nuʿaym both transmitted the report through this same Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥajjāj (8).

Ibn Durustūyah and Abū Nuʿaym also related it through the isnād of al-Kalbī, from Abū Ṣāliḥ, from Ibn ʿAbbās. This route is preferable to the previous one, and it states that Abū Bakr was the person who recited the whole episode—its prose and its verse—before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym likewise narrated it on the authority of Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn Isḥāq al-Khaṭmī.

ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Makhzūmī told us:
Abū Ḥātim al-Sijistānī told us; Wahb ibn Jarīr told us, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:
The delegation of Bakr ibn Wāʾil came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he asked them, “What has become of an ally of yours called Quss ibn Sāʿidah al-Iyādī?” He then recounted the story at length (9).

The travelling ḥadīth-master, Shaykh Aḥmad ibn Abī Ṭālib al-Ḥajjār, also informed us by written authorization—if not by direct audition—saying:
Jaʿfar ibn ʿAlī al-Hamdānī authorized us; he said: al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Ṭāhir Aḥmad (10) ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Silafī related to us by direct audition (Ḥ) (11).

I read before our teacher, al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Dhahabī, who said: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Bakr al-Khallāl related to us by audition; he said: Jaʿfar ibn ʿAlī related to us by audition; al-Silafī related to us by audition; Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Rāzī related to us; Abū al-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā al-Saʿdī related to us; Abū al-Qāsim ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Muqriʾ related to us.

Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Durustūyah the grammarian told us:
Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Aḥmad al-Saʿdī—the judge of Fārs—told us; Abū Dāwūd Sulaymān ibn Sayf ibn Yaḥyā ibn Dirham al-Ṭāʾī, a native of Harrān, told us; Abū ʿAmr Saʿīd ibn Yarbuʿ told us, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, who said:
One of our knowledgeable companions related to me, from al-Ḥasan ibn Abī al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, that he said:
Al-Jārūd ibn al-Muʿallā ibn Ḥanash ibn Muʿallā