“Abandoned in hadith despite his worship; from the eighth tier. Whoever conflates him with the former has erred.” Al-Khazrajī likewise distinguished between the two in al-Khulāṣah and elsewhere, as will follow.

However, al-Dhahabī’s foregoing remarks contain certain errors that must be noted in order to complete the investigation. First, his statement in the biography of the elder: “Abū Zurʿah said: ‘Weak,’” is mistaken. It should properly be transferred to the biography of the younger, under which Ibn Abū Ḥātim recorded it (1/2/251), followed by al-Ḥāfiẓ in al-Tahdhīb. Second, his statement, both there and in the biography of the younger, “Ibn Maʿīn said: ‘Acceptable,’” is also mistaken. The correct course is to mention it only in the biography of the younger, as Ibn Abū Ḥātim and Ibn Ḥajar did. Third, his statement: “As for al-Bukhārī, he mentioned him in al-Ḍuʿafāʾ.” I say: if he means by this al-Bukhārī’s well-known book al-Ḍuʿafāʾ, as would naturally be understood, then I have not found him mentioned therein—neither the elder nor the younger—in the edition printed in India. I do not know whether this occurs in another copy of it, although I consider that unlikely, for al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar did not mention it at all. Rather, he said: “Al-Bukhārī said: Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb said, ‘He is the greatest liar among creation.’”

Yet, although al-Ḥāfiẓ did not attribute this to al-Bukhārī’s al-Ḍuʿafāʾ, he included it in the biography of Ḥarb ibn Maymūn the younger, whereas al-Bukhārī himself included it only in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr, in the biography of the elder. He said (1/2/65): “Ḥarb ibn Maymūn, said to be Abū al-Khaṭṭāb al-Baṣrī, the client of al-Naḍr ibn Anas al-Anṣārī, narrated from Anas (!); Yūnus ibn Muḥammad heard from him. Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb said: ‘This is the greatest liar among creation.’” Al-Bukhārī mentioned nothing in the biography of the younger (1/2/64).