Al-Ṭaḥāwī recorded the report in Mushkil al-Āthār with the following chain: Yūsuf ibn Yazīd narrated to us, Ḥajjāj ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us, Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar, from Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥarmalah, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, Sulaymān ibn Yasār, and Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from her.

This isnād is authentic; every man in it is trustworthy and distinguished.

Muslim likewise included it in his Ṣaḥīḥ, as did al-Bayhaqī, and so too al-Bukhārī in al-Adab al-Mufrad, through several routes from Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar with similar wording, in which appears the phrase, “with his thigh—or his shin—uncovered,” thus conveying doubt.

In my estimation, the version related by al-Ṭaḥāwī, which contains no uncertainty, is the correct one, for several reasons:

First: doubt is not knowledge, and therefore cannot outweigh the certainty affirmed by a reliable narrator.

Second and third: that version is supported by an additional route and corroborating reports within al-Ṭaḥāwī’s own narration.

As for the additional route, Aḥmad said: Marwān narrated to us; ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Siyyār related: I heard ʿĀʾishah bint Ṭalḥah recount from ʿĀʾishah, Mother of the Believers, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was sitting with his thighs uncovered. Abū Bakr then sought permission to enter and was granted it…—and he mentioned the hadith in full.

This chain’s narrators are reliable transmitters of the Six Books, apart from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Siyyār; al-Ḥusaynī declared him “unknown,” as stated in al-Taʿjīl.

Al-Ḥusaynī also indicated that this hadith appears in the Musnad of Aḥmad, and al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar said: