The ḥadith is further supported by the narration of Jābir, which contains the additional wording:

“wa-lā nāma rajulun fī baytin waḥdahu” (“nor should a man sleep in a house by himself”).

Al-Haythamī states in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (8/104): “It was transmitted by al-Ṭabarānī in al-Awsat. In its chain appears Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim al-Asadī; Ibn Maʿīn declared him reliable, while Aḥmad and others deemed him weak. The remaining transmitters are trustworthy.”

I say: Concerning this al-Asadī, al-Ḥāfiẓ wrote in al-Taqrīb, “They accused him of fabrication,” so his report cannot be taken even as supportive evidence. The same additional wording is found in certain chains of the ḥadith of Ibn ʿUmar mentioned earlier, and reliance should be placed on those versions.

62 — “al-rākib shayṭān, wa-l-rākibān shayṭānān, wa-l-thalāthatu rakb” (“A solitary rider is a devil, two riders are two devils, whereas three constitute a proper traveling party”).

Mālik (2/978/35) recorded it, and through him Abū Dāwūd (2607); likewise al-Tirmidhī (1/314), al-Ḥākim (2/102), al-Bayhaqī (5/267), and Aḥmad (2/186, 214), all through the route of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb, from his father, from his grandfather, traced back to the Prophet.

Its background, as related by al-Ḥākim in al-Mustadrak and by al-Bayhaqī, is that “a man returned from a journey, whereupon the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, asked him, ‘With whom did you travel?’ He replied, ‘I had no companion.’ The Messenger of Allah then said the above statement.”

Al-Ḥākim ruled: “Its chain is sound.”