to al-Bukhari, citing Taysīr al-Wuṣūl. I do not know whether Taysīr al-Wuṣūl misled him in this regard or whether al-Taysīr did; he should verify it.
A point of benefit: After attributing the hadith to some of those we have mentioned—and adding al-Nasa’i, although he did not transmit it in his al-Sughrā, but rather in al-Kubrā, under “The Virtues of the Quran,” as stated in al-Mizzi’s Tuḥfat al-Ashrāf (6/290)—Ibn ‘Abd al-Hadi said: “Al-Khatib said: ‘Every hadith in which the chain reads, “’Asim from Zir from ‘Abd Allah,” without further identifying ‘Abd Allah, refers to Ibn Mas‘ud—except for this hadith.’”
Al-Khattabi said in Ma‘ālim al-Sunan (2/136): “I say: It is mentioned in a report that the number of the verses of the Quran corresponds to the number of the levels of Paradise. The reciter will be told: ‘Ascend through the levels according to the number of verses of the Quran that you used to recite.’ Whoever completes the recitation of the entire Quran will attain the highest levels of Paradise, while whoever recites a portion of it will ascend through the levels in proportion to that. Thus, the ultimate reward corresponds to the extent of one’s recitation.”
The report to which he alluded was recorded by Ibn Abi Shaybah (10/466/10001): Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sudusi narrated to us from Mu‘affas ibn ‘Imran, from Umm al-Darda’, who said: “I entered upon ‘A’ishah and asked, ‘What advantage does one who recites the Quran have over one who does not recite it, among those who enter Paradise?’ She replied, ‘The number of the levels of Paradise is according to the number of verses of the Quran; thus, no one who enters Paradise is superior to one who recited the Quran.’”
Ibn Abi Hatim mentioned this Mu‘affas (4/1/433), citing two other narrators who reported from him, but did not mention any narrator criticism or accreditation concerning him. Ibn Abi Hatim also listed Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sudusi (3/2/324), on the basis of Waki‘’s narration from him, without adding anything further. He is therefore unknown. Waki‘—that is, Ibn al-Jarrah—was among Ibn Abi Shaybah’s teachers from whom he narrated frequently. It therefore appears that his name was omitted from Ibn Abi Shaybah’s text, just as the name of his teacher appears there as Muqa‘as, with a qaf followed by an ‘ayn. This is a typographical error. In sum, the chain of transmission of this report is weak. And Allah knows best.