I say: It is therefore to be feared that his chain of transmission for this hadith is one of his errors, particularly since Muḥammad ibn Abī Nuʿaym said: “Saʿīd ibn Zayd narrated to us, from al-Zubayr ibn al-Khirrīt, from Nuʿaym ibn Abī Hind, from ʿUrwah ibn Abī al-Jaʿd, who said:

‘I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, twisting the forelock of his horse between his fingers, and saying: “Goodness is in the forelocks of horses until the Day of Resurrection.”’

He did not mention the hadith under discussion.

Baḥshal transmitted it thus in Tārīkh Wāsiṭ (p. 48), with an authentic chain to him. However, Muḥammad ibn Abī Nuʿaym is subject to criticism, so his narration cannot be set against that of Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm—the trustworthy al-Farāhīdī—mentioned above, which contains the hadith under discussion.

However, Muḥammad ibn Abī Nuʿaym’s hadith has been authentically reported through another route, from Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said:

“I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, twisting a horse’s forelock with his finger and saying: ‘Goodness is tied to the forelocks of horses until the Day of Resurrection: reward and spoils of war.’”

Muslim (6/31–32), Abū ʿAwānah (5/11), al-Nasāʾī (2/201), and, in al-Kubrā (3/38/4414), Ibn Abī Shaybah in al-Muṣannaf (12/481)—and through him al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan (6/326)—Aḥmad (4/361), al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr (2/385/2409), and Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in al-Tamhīd (24/103) all transmitted it through Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd, from ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd, from Abū Zurʿah ibn ʿAmr ibn Jarīr, from Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh, with this report.