and because it contains Abu Tayba ʿAbd Allah ibn Muslim al-Marwazi. Abu Hatim al-Razi says: “His reports are written down but not used as proof.” Ibn Hibban, in al-Thiqat, adds: “He errs and contradicts.” Thus he is weak on account of his memory, though no charge is laid against his integrity; for that reason Ibn Hajar writes in al-Taqrib: “Truthful, yet prone to error.” A narrator of this standing may be cited for corroboration so long as he is not alone, and the present hadith is of that kind; it therefore provides a strong supporting witness, God willing. A third corroboration comes from Jabir, transmitted by Abu al-Hasan ibn al-Salt al-Mujabbir in his Juzʾ Amali Abi ʿAbd Allah al-Muhamili, and by Ismaʿil al-Saffar, 1/58. Note: The hadith teaches that a ring of iron is forbidden, for it considers it worse than a ring of gold. One should therefore not be deceived by the fatwa of certain respected muftis who declared it permissible on the basis of the report in the two Sahihs in which the Prophet ﷺ said to a man who had proposed to a woman without possessing a dowry: “Seek, even if it be a ring of iron.” I have discussed that report in Irwaʾ al-Ghalil, no. 1983; it is not a decisive text permitting iron, and for that reason Ibn Hajar states in Fath al-Bari, 10/266: