I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy and are among those relied upon by the Two Shaykhs, apart from al-Ḥasan ibn Yūnus al-Zayyāt. He too was trustworthy, as al-Khaṭīb stated, and he mentioned that a number of trustworthy scholars narrated from him, including Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Ṣāʿid, and al-Muḥāmilī.

I say: Al-Bazzār was also among them, in his Musnad (1/209/415).

However, al-Dāraquṭnī and al-Bayhaqī indicated that the phrase “three” is anomalous: Huraym differed in it from a number of trustworthy narrators who did not mention it. Al-Ḥāfiẓ explicitly affirmed this, saying in al-Fatḥ, after mentioning two other wordings, “after two nights” and “after a month” (3/305):

“These are anomalous reports. The wording of the authentic routes indicates that he performed the prayer over him on the morning of his burial.”

And it is as he said, may Allah have mercy on him. I had previously documented some of the routes to which he referred in al-Irwāʾ (3/183/736/2), and some of them explicitly support what he said.

But I say: The hadith under discussion is corroborated by other hadiths, the strongest of which is the hadith of Abū Hurayrah:

A black woman used to sweep the mosque. She died, and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, missed her and asked about her after several days. He was told, “She has died.” He said:

“Why did you not inform me?”

He then went to her grave and performed the funeral prayer over her.

It was narrated by the Two Shaykhs and others, such as Ibn Mājah and al-Bayhaqī; the wording cited here is theirs. It has been documented in Aḥkām al-Janāʾiz (113, al-Maʿārif).