This is an authentic ḥadīth transmitted by Muslim, al-Nasāʾī, al-Dārimī, and Aḥmad through several chains from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Abī Sulaymān, who said: “ʿAṭāʾ related it to us from him.”

As for the Prophet’s description of the woman as sata, this is the wording found in Muslim, whereas the other narrations read safila. Most likely the latter is a scribal alteration of the former. Al-Nawawī, in his commentary on Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, writes:

“In the manuscripts the word appears as sata, with a kasrah on the sīn and a light tāʾ; some copies have wasata al-nisāʾ (a woman in the middle rank among women). Al-Qāḍī said it means ‘one of their best women,’ for al-wasat in Arabic conveys justice and excellence. Some of our meticulous teachers, however, have claimed that the word in Muslim’s text has been altered and that the correct form is safila al-nisāʾ, ‘a woman of the lower-class women.’ Ibn Abī Shayba records it that way in his Musnad, as does al-Nasāʾī in his Sunan, and another wording of Ibn Abī Shayba says: ‘a woman who was not among the prominent women.’ This sense is the opposite of the first explanation and is supported by the phrase that follows: safʿāʾ al-khaddayn.” Such are the words of al-Qāḍī.

Al-Nawawī continues: “The claim that the word has been tampered with is unacceptable; the reading sata is sound, yet it does not mean ‘one of the best women’ as al-Qāḍī suggested. Rather, it designates a woman situated in the middle of the gathering, seated among them. Al-Jawharī and other linguists say: wasattu al-qawma awsutuhum wastaʾan aw wasatan—that is, ‘I placed myself in their midst.’

“As for the term safʿāʾ al-khaddayn, with an open sīn, it refers to cheeks that are marked by discoloration or a darkish hue.” End of al-Nawawī’s statement.

This ḥadīth therefore shows that women used to attend the prayer with their faces uncovered, for only thus could the narrator have described one of them as having dark cheeks.