“I know of no narrator from him other than Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr.” But this narration of al-Ḥubulī from him refutes that.

The third: from Abū Sufyān, from his teachers, who said: Saʿd visited Salmān while he was ill, and he wept … the hadith, but without the additional wording. It contains another addition, which you may consult in al-Targhīb (4/99), if you wish. Ibn Saʿd recorded it, saying: Abū Muʿāwiyah al-Ḍarīr informed us; al-Aʿmash narrated to us from Abū Sufyān … Abū Nuʿaym and al-Ḥākim (4/317) also recorded it through two other routes from Abū Muʿāwiyah, with the same chain. Al-Ḥākim said: “Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabī concurred with him, and they were correct.

As for al-Mundhirī’s disparagement of it in saying, “That is what he said,” it is apparent that he meant the unknown status of Abū Sufyān’s teachers. Yet such anonymity does not undermine it in the view of discerning hadith critics, since they constitute a group whose plurality offsets their anonymity—particularly since, at the very least, they were Successors. Jarīr narrated it from al-Aʿmash as follows: from Abū Sufyān, from Jābir, who said: Saʿd visited … Abū Nuʿaym recorded it.

I say: If this narration is preserved, it supports the likelihood that Abū Sufyān’s teachers were Companions, or at least one of them was. Allah knows best.

The fourth: from Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān, from Thābit, from Anas, who said: Salmān fell ill, and Saʿd visited him and saw him weeping … the hadith, including the additional wording found in the third route. Ibn Mājah (4104), al-Ṭabarānī (6069), and Abū Nuʿaym recorded it, though Abū Nuʿaym did so without the additional wording.