Abu Hurayrah and Zayd ibn Khalid al-Juhani, who attributed a similar report to the Prophet. They both recorded it in the two Sahihs and elsewhere. I have cited it in al-Irwa’ (2326), so the text of the hadith is authentic. And Allah knows best.

Note: Ahmad’s narration does not contain the words, “If she commits adultery, flog her,” on the fourth occasion. Apparently, however, this is an authentic addition. For in the hadith in the two Sahihs mentioned above, Ibn Shihab said: “I do not know whether it was after the third or the fourth time.” Yet Ahmad narrated (2/376 and 422), through Said ibn Abi Said—from his father, as added in one narration—from Abu Hurayrah, who added: “If she does it again a fourth time, let him sell her, even for a rope of hair or a braid of hair.” Its chain is authentic according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs, and it is recorded by Muslim (5/123–124), though without this addition. And Allah knows best.

2922 — “Do not sell singing slave-girls, buy them, or teach them to sing. There is no good in trading them, and their price is forbidden. Concerning such matters, this verse was revealed: ‘And among the people are those who purchase frivolous discourse in order to lead others astray from the way of Allah’—to the end of the verse.”

It was narrated by al-Tirmidhi (1282 and 3193), Ibn Jarir al-Tabari in his Exegesis (21/39), Ahmad (5/252 and 264), al-Humaydi (910), Ibn Abi al-Dunya in Censure of Amusements (folio 5/1), al-Bayhaqi in al-Sunan (6/14), al-Tha‘labi in his Exegesis (3/75/1), from whom al-Baghawi narrated it in his Exegesis (6/284), and al-Wahidi in