Moreover, no one other than Ibn Ḥibbān considered him reliable, and no one transmitted from him except Yaʿlā ibn ʿAṭāʾ; hence Ibn al-Qaṭṭān ruled that he is majhūl al-ḥāl (of unknown status). Al-Dhahabī likewise said, “He is not known.” Even so, his report is acceptable as corroborative evidence, and al-Ḥāfiẓ graded its chain as ḥasan (12/377).

Ibn Abī Shaybah (12/193/1) and al-Wāḥidī in al-Wasīṭ (2/96/2) also recorded, through Yazīd al-Raqāshī from Anas, the Prophetic wording: “The dream belongs to the first interpreter.” I say: Yazīd is weak.

(The phrase “dangling from a bird’s leg”) means that the dream does not settle until it is interpreted, as al-Ṭaḥāwī, al-Khaṭṭābī, and others have explained.

The ḥadīth is explicit that a dream comes to pass according to the manner in which it is interpreted. For that reason the Messenger of Allah ﷺ instructed us not to relate a dream except to someone sincere or knowledgeable, on the assumption that such a person will choose the most favorable meaning, and the dream will therefore occur accordingly. There is, however, no doubt that this is conditioned on the interpretation being something the dream can plausibly bear, even if only remotely; if it is a sheer mistake, it will have no effect. Allah knows best.

Imām al-Bukhārī alluded to this point in the “Book of Dream Interpretation” of his Ṣaḥīḥ, where he entitled a chapter (4/362): “Chapter: When the dream is not attributed to the first interpreter if he is incorrect.” He then cited the report of the man who saw in his sleep a canopy, which Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq interpreted, then