“... and I am with him when he remembers Me...” This is also Ibn Hibban’s version (808), and its documentation has already been given under no. 2011. There, I also cited an authentic corroborating report from Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, in support of the hadith in question.

2943 — “My mother took me to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, [when I was a boy]. He wiped my head and supplicated for provision for me; [in another version: for blessing].”

Al-Bukhari recorded it in al-Adab al-Mufrad (164/632): Abu Numayr narrated to us; Abu al-Yaman narrated to us; he said: Isma'il ibn Abi Khalid narrated to us; he said: I heard Amr ibn Hurayth say—then he mentioned it. I say: This is a chain of transmission whose narrators are trustworthy, except for this Abu Numayr, whom I was unable to identify. No narrator is known by this kunyah except one who belonged to an earlier generation, and al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi mentioned no one else in his work on kunyas.

There is a second problem in the chain: Abu al-Yaman—whose name was al-Hakam ibn Nafi' al-Bahrani—was one of the author’s teachers here and in the Sahih, and the author narrated directly from him here in approximately fifteen hadiths. Yet they did not mention that he narrated from him through an intermediary, especially through this unknown Abu Numayr.

There is a third problem: Abu al-Yaman explicitly stated that Isma'il ibn Abi Khalid narrated to him. This is highly improbable in view of their respective dates of birth and death. Abu al-Yaman’s biography states that he was born in 138 AH, while Isma'il’s biography states that he died in 146 AH. Thus, Abu al-Yaman would have been eight years old when Isma'il died; consequently, they did not record for him—