Abū Nuʿaym also transmitted it in al-Ḥilyah (2/280 and 6/274), through another route from al-Firyābī and others, from Bishr, with the same wording. Abū Yaʿlā likewise transmitted it in his Musnad (4/1437): Bishr ibn Sayḥān narrated to us with it, adding: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, visited Bilāl while he was ill, and Bilāl brought out for him a heap of dates. He said, ‘What is this, Bilāl?’ He replied, ‘Dates that I have stored away, O Messenger of Allah.’ He said, ‘Do you not fear that you will hear it steaming in Hell?! Spend ...’” and so on.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy and well-known narrators documented in al-Tahdhīb, apart from Bishr ibn Sayḥān, who was Abū ʿAlī al-Thaqafī al-Baṣrī. Abū Ḥātim recorded hadith from him and said: “There is no harm in him; he was a devout worshipper.” Abū Zurʿah likewise narrated from him, and when asked about him, said: “A righteous shaykh from Basra,” as recorded in al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl (1/1/358). This escaped al-Ḥāfiẓ, who therefore did not mention him in his biographical entry in al-Lisān; rather, he merely said: “Ibn Ḥibbān said in al-Thiqāt: ‘He would sometimes narrate odd reports.’”

The second route is through Bakkār ibn Muḥammad al-Sīrīnī: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAwn narrated to us from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, from him, with the same wording; and it includes the story. It was transmitted by al-Bazzār (4/251/3655), al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (1/101/1) and al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ (4/486—Islamic University), Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah (2/180), al-Bayhaqī in al-Dalāʾil (1/347), Abū Ṣāliḥ al-Ḥarbī in al-Fawāʾid al-ʿAwālī (fol. 175/2), and al-ʿUqaylī in al-Ḍuʿafāʾ (p. 55), in Bakkār’s biographical entry. He cited two other hadiths of his and said: