Al-Ṭayālisī also narrated the portion of the report that speaks of praying inside the Kaʿbah through this same chain, and al-Bayhaqī cited it from him, remarking, “There is a mursal break between ʿUrwah and ʿUthmān.” Ibn al-Turkmanī responded: “I say: ʿUrwah did indeed hear from his father al-Zubayr, and his narrations from him appear in several places in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī. Al-Zubayr died before ʿUthmān ibn Ṭalḥah, so there is no impediment to ʿUrwah’s having heard from ʿUthmān as well; moreover, the author of al-Kamāl states explicitly that he did hear from him.”

Among the supporting chains is that of Jābir, who said: “The Prophet ﷺ entered the House on the day of the Conquest and prayed two rakʿahs inside it.” Al-Ṭaḥāwī transmitted it through Abū al-Zubayr from Jābir. The narrators are trustworthy, yet Abū al-Zubayr was a mudallis and he used the ambiguous formula “from” (ʿanʿanah).

A difficulty has been raised regarding Ibn ʿUmar’s statements. In the versions transmitted from him via Bilāl he says, “Yes, he prayed two rakʿahs,” whereas in the first narration through Nāfiʿ he says, “I forgot to ask him how many units he prayed.”

Al-Bayhaqī and others reply that it is possible Ibn ʿUmar mentioned the minimum that constitutes a prayer and kept silent about any further units because he had not asked Bilāl. On that reading, the words “two rakʿahs” belong to Ibn ʿUmar rather than to Bilāl—a reconciliation that, as you can see, is somewhat strained.

Nevertheless, Ibn Ḥajar, after presenting a similar solution, added: “I have found corroborating evidence that suggests yet another way to harmonize the two reports, namely what ʿUmar ibn Shabbah produced in Kitāb Makkah through the chain of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Rawād from Nāfiʿ…”