11 – Eleven rakʿahs: he would pray four with a single salām, then another four the same way, and finally three.

This was related by the Two Shaykhs and others on the authority of ʿĀʾishah, and its exact wording has already been quoted. The plain sense of the report is that he sat after every two rakʿahs within both the sets of four and the set of three, but did not give salām; this is how al-Nawawī explained it, as noted earlier. Some reports from ʿĀʾishah even state explicitly that the Prophet ﷺ did not give salām between the two-rakʿah pair and the witr, yet all of them are defective, as al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Naṣr, then al-Bayhaqī and al-Nawawī pointed out, and as I clarified in al-Taʿlīqāt al-Jiyād ʿalā Zād al-Maʿād. Hence the chief evidence for the permissibility of separating the rakʿahs by sitting without salām is the outward wording of this hadith, but a narration that contradicts this outward sense will appear at the close of the section. Allah knows best.

– 5 – He would pray eleven rakʿahs, eight of which he offered without sitting until the eighth; there he sat, recited the tashahhud and invoked blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ, then rose without giving salām, performed one rakʿah of witr and gave salām, after which he prayed two rakʿahs while seated. This is the hadith of ʿĀʾishah, transmitted by Saʿd ibn Hishām ibn ʿĀmir. He went to Ibn ʿAbbās and asked him about the witr of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Ibn ʿAbbās said, “Shall I direct you to the person on earth who knows most about the witr of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?” He asked, “Who is that?” Ibn ʿAbbās replied, “ʿĀʾishah—go to her and ask her.” So he went to her and said, “Mother of the Believers, inform me about the witr…” ⦗105⦘