“His weakness is evident in his hadith.”

It is also reported from Ibn Maʿīn that he said:

“He is nothing.”

And al-Nasāʾī said:

“Weak.”

Ibn Abī Ḥātim (3/1/303) said, quoting his father:

“He was weak in hadith, and his hadith were extremely rejected. Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh narrated from him two false, fabricated hadiths.”

Al-Dhahabī said immediately afterward:

“One of them is the report of ʿĀʾishah’s race, in wordings that are objectionable. The second is from Hishām, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah…”

I say: Thus, he mentioned this hadith of his. Al-Ḥāfiẓ cited this approvingly in al-Lisān and did not comment on it. In my view, however, classifying it outright as fabricated is clearly open to question, for its meaning accords with the hadith that corroborates Sulaymān ibn Bilāl’s report, as you can see.

I found another chain from ʿĀʾishah. Ibn Saʿd (8/80) said: Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar informed us; Fāṭimah bint Muslim related to me, from Fāṭimah al-Khuzāʿiyyah, who said: “I heard ʿĀʾishah…”—the hadith in a more complete version. But Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar—who is al-Wāqidī—is abandoned. Therefore, reliance rests upon al-Bukhārī’s narration through Sulaymān ibn Bilāl. *