(1) Al-Dhahabi records it in al-‘Ulū (p. 42) via al-Haytham ibn ‘Uday, commenting: “It is an akhbari report and weak,” and attributes it to al-Musannif. Al-Haytham ibn ‘Uday was accused of lying: Yahya ibn Ma‘in deemed him unreliable; al-Bukhari said he was not trustworthy and used to fabricate; Abu Dawud labeled him a liar; an-Nasa'i and others abandoned his reports. See al-Mizan 4:324; al-Dha‘ā’if al-Kabīr 4:352. Ibn ‘Abd Rabbih al-Andalusi records the full narrative in al-‘Iqd al-Farīd 1:205 (2nd ed., al-Azhar Press, 1346 AH), and Ibn Kathir in al-Bidaya wa’l-Nihāya 9:262. (2) In other copies: “qāla ḥaddathanī” (“He said, ‘He narrated to me.’”). (3) Al-Dhahabi records it in al-‘Ulū (p. 32), stating: “This is mursal (interrupted).” He erroneously cites Muhammad ibn Malik instead of Ma‘bad ibn Ka‘b (see Ma‘bad’s entry in at-Tahdhīb 10:224). Ibn Ishaq’s al-Sīrah also preserves the hadith mursal via ‘Alqama ibn Waqas (3:293). Al-Dhahabi further transmits it through another chain from Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas, commenting: “This is a sahih (authentic) hadith, reported by an-Nasa'i via Abu ‘Amir ‘Abd al-Malik ibn ‘Umar al-‘Aqdaqi from Muhammad ibn Salih at-Tammar, who is saduq (truthful).” See al-‘Ulū p. 32. The original narration appears in the two Sahihs via Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri—without the witness phrase—see al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Maghazi, 4121 (Fath al-Bari 7:411); Muslim, Kitab al-Jihad, 1769 (3:1389). Al-Bayhaqi transmits it in Al-Asma wa’l-Sifat (p. 420) from the same Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas; its isnad includes Muhammad ibn Salih at-Tammar, whom al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar describes as “saduq but prone to error” (al-Taqrib 2:170). Al-Dhahabi’s biography of him appears in al-Mizan 3:581, noting scholarly disagreement: Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Abu Dawud deemed him reliable, while Abu Hatim judged him weak. On al-arqa‘a (the “patch”): al-Zamakhshari explains it refers to the heavens, each being the raqy‘ (patch) of the one below (al-Fā’iq fī Gharīb al-Hadīth 2:77); Lisān al-‘Arab adds that the seven heavens are called “seven patches,” each serving as the patch of that above, like mending a garment with patches. See the entry raqa‘a.