“It is authentic according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs,” and al-Dhahabī concurred.

Yet this ruling is surprising, for al-Khadr ibn Abān is neither a teacher cited by the two Shaykhs nor one of their regular transmitters, and he is weak: both al-Ḥākim and al-Dhahabī themselves declared him unreliable. Al-Dhahabī writes in al-Mīzān: “Al-Ḥākim and others deemed him weak. He was a Kufan client of the Banū Hāshim who heard from Azhur al-Samman … and al-Dāraqutnī also found fault with him.”

The correct version, therefore, is the narration of Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā from Azhur, from Ibn ʿAwf, from ʿUmayr—the same chain borne by the majority from Ibn ʿAwn. This Yaḥyā is al-Naysābūrī, a reliable ḥāfiẓ.

Even so, Abū Salamah—namely, Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl—does corroborate al-Khadr ibn Abān in transmitting from Azhur ibn Saʿd al-Samman, from Ibn ʿAwn, from Muḥammad. He said: “Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us; Ibn ʿAwn informed us from Muḥammad—meaning Ibn Sīrīn—with the wording: ‘so he kissed his navel.’”

Al-Bayhaqī recorded this and then remarked, “That is how he transmitted it from Ḥammād. Others, however, report it from Ḥammād and from Ibn ʿAwn through Abū Muḥammad—that is, ʿAmbar ibn Isḥāq.”

Among the corroborative reports, too, is the ḥadīth of Abū Maḥdhūrah regarding the adhān: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ placed his hand on Abū Maḥdhūrah’s forelock, then passed it over his face, then between his breasts, then over his hand, until the hand of the Messenger of Allah reached Abū Maḥdhūrah’s navel.