I replied, “Allah says: ‘Exalted is He who transported His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque whose surroundings We have blessed, so that We might show him some of Our signs. Indeed, He alone is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.’”

Hudhayfah rejoined, “Do you find in it that he prayed? Had he prayed there, you would now be praying in it just as you pray elsewhere.” In another wording: “Had he prayed in it, prayer there would have been made obligatory for you just as prayer is prescribed [ت] in the Sacred Mosque.”

Zirr said, “And he tethered the mount to the ring by which the prophets—peace be upon them—tether their mounts.”

Hudhayfah objected, “Was he afraid it might run away after Allah had brought it to him?” In another narration he laughed until I could see his molars and said, “They claim he tied it up—why? Would it flee from him when the Knower of the unseen and the seen had subjected it to him? [حم]”

The report is recorded by Ahmad 5/387, 392, 394; al-Tirmidhī 3147; Ibn Ḥibbān 33; and al-Ḥākim 2/359. They all declared it authentic, and al-Dhahabī agreed with them; yet it is only sound (ḥasan) because of the well-known difference of opinion over ʿĀṣim ibn Bahdalah. It is also cited in al-Ṣaḥīḥah 874.

It was likewise transmitted by Ibn Abī Shaybah, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Mardawayh, and al-Bayhaqī