Aḥmad also records the narration, and its chain is sound, fulfilling the criteria of all six canonical compilers. Al-Ṭaḥāwī transmits it as well.

The report is further corroborated by several supporting narrations, among them:

1. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ṣafwān said, “I asked ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, ‘What did the Messenger of Allah ﷺ do when he entered the Kaʿbah?’ He replied, ‘He prayed two rakʿahs.’”
   This wording is reported by Abū Dāwūd, al-Ṭaḥāwī, al-Bayhaqī, and Aḥmad through the chain of Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād, from Mujāhid, from Ibn Ṣafwān.
   Yazīd—who is al-Hāshimī—is weak because of his poor memory.

   Yet Ibn Ḥajar cites the ḥadith in Fatḥ al-Bārī with the wording: “When the Prophet ﷺ came out, I asked those who had been with him, and they said, ‘He prayed two rakʿahs beside the middle pillar.’ It was recorded by al-Ṭabarānī with a sound chain.”
   This shows that al-Ṭabarānī must have transmitted it through a route other than that of Yazīd; otherwise Ibn Ḥajar would not have deemed it sound. Indeed, in his brief biographical dictionary Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb, Ibn Ḥajar describes Yazīd as: “Weak; he grew old, his memory deteriorated, and he had to be prompted.”
   Al-Ṭaḥāwī likewise relates the narration through that alternative route in wording similar to al-Ṭabarānī’s.

2. Another corroboration comes from Shaybah ibn ʿUthmān, transmitted from him by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Rajjāj, who said: “I went to Shaybah ibn ʿUthmān and asked, ‘Abū ʿUthmān, Ibn ʿAbbās claims that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ…’”