Ibn ʿAsākir also cites the report in his History through the chain: Aḥmad ibn Anas ibn Mālik – Ḥabīb the muʾadhdhin – Abū Ziyād al-Shaʿbānī or Abū Umayya al-Shaʿbānī, who said: “We were in Mecca when we noticed a man sitting in the shade of the Kaʿba, and it turned out to be Sufyān al-Thawrī. Someone asked him, ‘Abū ʿAbd Allāh, how do you assess the reward for prayer in this city?’ He replied, ‘One hundred thousand prayers.’ The man continued, ‘And in the Prophet’s Mosque?’ He said, ‘Fifty thousand prayers.’ He asked, ‘And in Jerusalem?’ He answered, ‘Forty thousand prayers.’ He then asked, ‘And in the Mosque of Damascus?’ He replied, ‘Thirty thousand prayers.’”

Ibn ʿAsākir records it again through another route from Aḥmad ibn Anas, noting explicitly, “from Abū Ziyād and Abū Umayya without any doubt.”

In either version, the chain is weak and contains unknown narrators. Abū Ziyād al-Shaʿbānī appears to be Khiyār ibn Salamah, Abū Ziyād al-Shāmī, whom Ibn Ḥajar classifies in Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb as “acceptable,” belonging to the third tier of transmitters. His counterpart, Abū Umayya al-Shaʿbānī—whose name is vocalized Yaḥmad (with ḍamma on the yāʾ, sukūn on the ḥāʾ, and kasra on the mīm; some read it with fatḥa on the first letter and on the mīm), and whose personal name is also reported as ʿAbd Allāh—is likewise deemed “acceptable,” though he belongs to the second tier.

As for Aḥmad ibn Anas ibn Mālik and Ḥabīb the muʾadhdhin, I have found no biographical entry for either of them. Regarding the latter, Ibn ʿAsākir merely says, “He used to give the adhān in the Mosque of the Sunday Market,” and adds nothing further.