Ibn Lahīʿah has poor retention, though his reports may be cited in corroboration. Abū al-Zubayr is trustworthy, except that he practised concealment in transmission; however, he has been corroborated in the other chain:

ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus said: al-Aʿmash narrated to us from Abū Sufyān, from Jābir, attributing it to the Prophet, with the wording: “When one of you cleanses himself with stones, let him do so three times.”

It was narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah (1/42/76), and through his route by al-Bayhaqī (1/103–104), Ibn Abī Shaybah in al-Muṣannaf (1/155), and Aḥmad (3/400). Al-Haythamī said (1/211): “Aḥmad’s narrators are trustworthy.”

I say: Rather, its narrators are trustworthy narrators of Muslim; thus, it is a sound chain of transmission. Dr al-Aʿẓamī, in his notes on Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah, attributed it to Muslim, Book of Ritual Purity, 24, through Abū al-Zubayr from Jābir!

Two objections may be raised against this:

First, Muslim (1/147, Istanbul edition) does not have the words “three times”; rather, he has in their place: “Let him make it an odd number,” and Aḥmad likewise has this wording (3/294).

Second, both of them narrate it through the route of Ibn Jurayj: “Abū al-Zubayr informed me that he heard Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh ...” Thus, Abū al-Zubayr explicitly stated that he heard it directly, which is an important benefit and should not be overlooked, given what is known of Abū al-Zubayr’s concealment in transmission, as mentioned above. Perhaps this narration lends some strength, at least in a general sense, to the aforementioned narration of Ibn Lahīʿah.