“There is nothing objectionable about him.” Indeed, al-Fallās said: “He is a reliable shaykh; there is nothing objectionable about him.” Thus, his hadith is good, if Allah Most High wills, so long as he does not contradict others. He did, however, narrate a rejected hadith, which we have cited and in which we clarified who contradicted him in the other book (1063).

A further corroborating report is narrated by Abū Ḥafṣ al-Jumaḥī: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz narrated to us; al-Qaʿnabī narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith al-Jumaḥī narrated to us, from Muḥammad ibn Ḥibbān, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, who said: “Whoever circumambulates this House seven times, speaking during it only to proclaim Allah’s greatness or His oneness, will have the reward equivalent to freeing a slave.” Al-Bayhaqī recorded it in al-Sunan al-Kubrā (5/85). Its narrators are trustworthy, apart from Abū Ḥafṣ—or, in one version, Abū Jaʿfar—al-Jumaḥī, whom I was unable to identify. Muḥammad ibn Ḥibbān is Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥibbān, attributed to his grandfather.

Supporting the phrase, “he engages in no idle talk therein,” is the hadith of Ibn ʿAbbās, reported both as attributed to the Prophet and as attributed to the Companion: “Circumambulation around the House is like prayer, except that you speak during it. So whoever speaks during it should speak only what is good.” It has been authenticated as attributed to the Prophet, and a number of scholars graded it authentic. It is cited in Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl (121).