“…When I was taken up to the heavens,”—and in another version: “While I was walking in Paradise” (Ahmad 3/207)—“I passed by a river whose banks were lined with domes.” In Humayd’s report (3/263) it reads: “tents of pearl,” and in yet another narration: “hollow pearls.”

I asked, “What is this, O Gabriel?” He replied, “This is al-Kawthar [which your Lord has granted you.” He (the Prophet) added: “So I dipped my hand into it,” and in a third wording: “The angel stretched out his hand; its soil was pure musk and its pebbles were pearls.”]

This alternate version is also recorded by al-Bukhari 6581, and by Ahmad 3/191, 207, and 289; the additional wording occurs in Ahmad 3/231 and 232. In the parallel report of al-Bukhari and Ahmad the phrase “its pebbles were pearls” is absent.

The third narration comes through Shaybān in Ahmad.

In another of Ahmad’s chains (3/232) it states: “The angel who was with me said, ‘Do you know what this is? This is al-Kawthar which your Lord has granted you.’ He then struck his hand into its bed and brought forth musk from its soil.”

Al-Hāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar did not recall these two versions from the Musnad; hence, in Fatḥ 8/732 he attributed only the first of them to al-Bayhaqī.

Second chain: from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Hāshim ibn ʿUtbah ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, from him, who said: