The first: through Kāmil ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, from Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit, from him.

The second: through Abū Yaḥyā, from Mujāhid, from him. Al-Ḥākim recorded both of them (1/491) and said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabī agreed with him! I say: Abū Yaḥyā—who was al-Qattāt—is weak, and Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit practised tadlīs. Thus, taken together, the two chains render the hadith good.

1580 — “Adam was created from three kinds of soil: black, white, and green.”

Ibn Saʿd related it in al-Ṭabaqāt (1/34), and from him Ibn ʿAsākir in The History of Damascus (2/309/1), through Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb, from someone who narrated it to him, from Abū Dharr, attributing it to the Prophet.

I say: Its narrators are trustworthy, apart from its unnamed Successor. However, it is strengthened by a corroborating report from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “Indeed, Allah created Adam ...” The hadith includes: “Thus the children of Adam came according to the nature of the earth: among them are the red, the white, and the black ...” Its chain of transmission is authentic, as I mentioned in al-Taʿlīq ʿalā al-Mishkāt (100). Its explanation will come under no. 1630, if Allah Most High wills.

Note that the word “green” occurs thus in the original source. Perhaps the correct reading is “red,” as appears in al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr in its attribution to Ibn Saʿd; this is supported by the corroborating report I mentioned. And Allah Most High knows best.