“I was the first member of this ummah to ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about that.” He replied, “It was only Gabriel; I did not see him in the form in which he was created except on these two occasions. I saw him descending from heaven, his enormous size filling the space between heaven and earth.” Muslim recorded it ⦗1/110⦘.

Muslim also narrated something similar from Abū Hurayrah in abridged form with the wording: “And indeed he saw him yet another time” (53:13) — he said: “He saw Gabriel.”

This mawqūf report is stronger than the mawqūf report of Ibn ʿAbbās because it is in harmony with the marfūʿ ḥadith of ʿĀʾishah. Ibn Khuzaymah produced a supporting marfūʿ narration from Ibn Masʿūd (pp. 133–134), and its chain is sound.

81- From him (Ibn ʿAbbās) also: “And indeed he saw him yet another time.” He said: “His Lord drew near to him.” Its isnād is ḥasan. ⦗1/69⦘

69- I say: Its chain is indeed ḥasan, as he maintained, for in the original (p. 82) he cited it thus: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Umawī — Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr — Abū Salamah — Ibn ʿAbbās. This is how it appears in all the printed sources as well as in the manuscript (fol. 19/2). The intermediary between Yaḥyā and Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr is missing; it is Saʿīd ibn Abān al-Umawī, Yaḥyā’s father. Ibn Jarīr brought it in his Tafsīr ⦗27/26⦘, saying: “Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Umawī related to us: my father related to us: Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to us….”

All the men in this isnād are reliable, apart from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAlqamah al-Laythī, about whom there is disagreement; the view that has ultimately prevailed among the scholars is that his traditions are ḥasan. Al-Ḥāfiẓ hinted at this in his Taqrīb when he said, “Truthful, though he makes mistakes.”

There is, however, a divergence in the transmission from him. Al-Umawī transmitted it from him in this manner as a mawqūf report from Ibn ʿAbbās, whereas al-Faḍl ibn Mūsā transmitted it from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr who said: “Kathīr ibn Ḥabīsh narrated to us from Anas ibn Mālik” as a marfūʿ report: “While I was lying in the mosque…,” then he cited the ḥadith of the Night Journey and Ascension, containing the words: “Then he drew near to his Lord and came down.” Another version has: “Then your Lord drew near and came down until He was two bow-lengths away, or nearer still….” Ibn Khuzaymah recorded this in al-Tawḥīd (pp. 139–140) with the first wording, and Ibn Jarīr ⦗27/27–28⦘ through the route of al-Naḍr (Ibn Shumayl) who said: “Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAlqamah ibn Waqāṣ al-Laythī informed us of it.”

As for Kathīr ibn Ḥabīsh — some say Khunays — there is weakness in him; so if Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr truly preserved it from him