The hadith was also transmitted by al-ʿUqaylī (4/420), in abbreviated form, and by al-Khaṭīb (14/190), in a fuller version, through two other routes from Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān, with the same chain. Al-ʿUqaylī said:

“No one corroborates him in this hadith.”

Al-Khaṭīb said:

“Hayqal alone transmitted it in this connected form—from Hayqal ibn Ziyād, from al-Awzāʿī—and I have only seen it through Yaḥyā ibn ʿUthmān’s transmission from Hayqal. Al-Walīd ibn Muslim differed from him, narrating it from al-Awzāʿī, from Isḥāq, from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) as a mursal report, without mentioning Anas.”

He then cited his chain of transmission to al-Walīd, which states that the woman was one of the Prophet’s wives.

I say: Hayqal was a trustworthy and precise narrator among Muslim’s narrators, especially in his transmissions from al-Awzāʿī, for he was his scribe. Aḥmad even said:

“No transmitter of al-Awzāʿī’s hadith more reliable than Hayqal is to be recorded.”

Abū Mushir said something similar:

“There was no one here more accurate in transmitting from al-Awzāʿī than Hayqal.”

Therefore, his narration outweighs that of al-Walīd ibn Muslim, especially since it contains an additional narrator in the chain of transmission, which must be accepted according to the well-known principle—particularly as al-Walīd ibn Muslim’s narrations from al-Awzāʿī have been subject to criticism.

The phrase concerning “the delight [of my eyes]” has another chain from Anas. It is referenced in al-Mishkāh (5261), al-Rawḍ al-Naḍīr (no. 53), and al-Radd ʿalā al-Haddām (no. 141).

It has just appeared in the hadith of al-Mughīrah (3291), and had previously been cited repeatedly at 1107 and 1809. *