Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar says in al-Taqrīb: “Reliable, though he makes mistakes.” I add: This report is one of those mistakes—if Abū al-Khiṭāb actually transmitted it from him; otherwise Abū al-Khiṭāb himself is unknown, as stated earlier. Indeed, Ibn Ḥajar calls him “unknown.” Al-Dhahabī writes in al-Mīzān: “He is not well known,” then cites this very ḥadīth and rules: “It is extremely irregular.” His assessment is spot-on.

Ibn ʿAsākir also reproduced the ḥadīth, in his entry on the Mosque of Damascus, through several chains that all go back to Abū al-Khiṭāb.

Of the same sort is what Ibn ʿAsākir recorded via Hishām ibn ʿAmmār: Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā al-Khushani related that “on the night of the Night Journey the Prophet ﷺ prayed at the site of the Mosque of Damascus.” Ibn ʿAsākir remarks, “This chain is disconnected.”

I say: In fact, it is severely broken, for wide gaps separate the Prophet ﷺ from al-Khushani. About al-Khushani Ibn Ḥajar notes in al-Taqrīb: “Reliable but frequently mistaken; he belongs to the second generation and died after ninety and one hundred—that is, sometime after 190 AH.”