“Its chain of transmission is authentic.” Al-Dhahabi concurred. I say: It is as the two of them said—or close to it—for this Saʿid is subject to slight criticism, but he has been corroborated. Sharik said: From ʿImran al-Nakhlī, from a client of Umm Salamah—may Allah be pleased with her—who said: “I was with the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, on a journey, and we came to a valley. I began helping the people across—or carrying them.” He said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to me: “Today, you were nothing but a ship,” or: “You are nothing but a ship.” Sharik was asked: “Was he Safinah, the client of Umm Salamah?” This is how it appears in al-Musnad; Sharik’s answer is not recorded there, and the question is one seeking confirmation. Ahmad (5/221) and al-Ruyani (128/1) transmitted it.

Sharik was Ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Qadi, whose hadith is good as corroborative evidence. Ibn Hibban declared ʿImran al-Nakhlī trustworthy (5/223). His son Hammad ibn ʿImran and Abu Nuʿaym also narrated from him, as recorded in al-Jarh (3/1/300); the latter named his father as ʿAbd Allah ibn Kaysan. I have reservations, however, about listing Abu Nuʿaym among those who narrated from him: first, al-Bukhari did not concur in this; and second, he mentioned him only as narrating from his son Hammad. Ibn Abi Hatim also concurred with him on this third point. Allah knows best.

Note: The nisbah al-Nakhlī is derived from Nakhlah. In al-Musnad, it appears as al-Bajalī, while in al-Ruyani it appears as al-Nakhaʿī. The correction is based on Tarikh al-Bukhari, Jarh al-Razi, and Ansab al-Samʿani. The reading in al-Musnad seems to be an ancient error, for it likewise appears in Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid (9/366), where, after citing the hadith, he said: “Ahmad transmitted it through two chains of transmission, and the narrators of one of them are trustworthy.”